The S&P 500 erased most of its gains and closed little changed on Wednesday amid year-end profit-taking, while policy uncertainty weighed on sentiment as President Donald Trump picked fights with Congress.
The Dow Jones Industrials muscled up 114.32 points at 30,129.83
The S&P 500 held onto gains of 2.75 points to 3,690.01.
Cyclical sectors — pockets of the market most sensitive to an economic recovery — provided the market with some support. Energy, picking up 2.2%, and financials, rising 1.6%, proved the two best-performing groups.
The NASDAQ dropped 36.8 points from Tuesday’s all-time record to 12,771.11, as tech heavyweights Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all dipped.
Wall Street, like its Canadian cousin, will close 1 p.m. EST, Thursday, Christmas Eve.
Travel-related stocks, which sold off earlier this week, rebounded as concerns about a new coronavirus strain from the U.K. eased. United Airlines and Delta climbed 2.7% each, while Carnival jumped 5.7% and Norwegian Cruise Line prospered 6.2%. Health experts said the vaccines in production would be effective against the new variant.
On Wednesday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced a second deal with the U.S. government to supply an additional 100 million doses of their jointly-developed COVID-19 vaccine. The deal brings the total number of doses to 200 million, which will be delivered to the U.S. by the end of July next year.
The U.S. so far has vaccinated more than one million people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The federal government’s goal is to inoculate 20 million Americans by the end of the year.
Late on Tuesday, Trump called the new $900-billion COVID relief package an unsuitable “disgrace” and admonished lawmakers to alter the bill’s content, especially the amount allocated for direct payments to Americans.
Trump did not threaten to veto the legislation but he asked to be sent a “suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package.”
On the data front, U.S. jobless claims totaled 803,000 during the week ending Dec. 19, better than an estimate of 888,000 according to economists polled by Dow Jones. However, core durable goods and personal income both fell short of expectations in November.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury lost some ground, raising yields to 0.94% from Tuesday’s 0.92%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices restored $1.02 to $48.04 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices regained $6.20 to $1,876.50.