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Dow Struggles for Direction as Slow Stimulus Progress Reins in Bulls

Published 2020-08-06, 01:26 p/m
Updated 2020-08-06, 01:32 p/m
© Reuters.

© Reuters.

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – Wall Street swung between gains and loss on Thursday as uncertainty over when lawmakers will strike a deal to roll out the next coronavirus relief bill kept bullish investor sentiment in check.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.24 %, or 331 points. The S&P 500 gained 0.66%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.52%.

Lawmakers hinted that they will eventually reach a deal on the next fiscal stimulus package, but the timeline remains murky somewhat ahead of a self-imposed Friday deadline.

Disagreements over whether to resume the enhanced $600-a-week unemployment benefit that was rolled in March but has since lapsed remained a key sticking point.

"We have been making some progress, proceeding in a positive way. We’re not there yet," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference.

The slow pace of progress comes a day ahead of the nonfarm payrolls for July, which economists expect to show a slowdown in the labor market.

Ahead of the crucial jobs report, the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims were less-than-expected at 1.186 million for the week ended August 1.  

Beyond talks on Capitol Hill, tech remained in favor as megacap tech stocks continued to rack up gains, led by a 5% pop in Facebook.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which collectively make up about 20% of the S&P 500, were mostly higher.

Energy, went from hero to zero, paring its gains from a day earlier as oil prices retreated more than 2%.

On the earnings front, Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) slumped 8% after the streaming device company warned of uncertain outlook in the second of the year, citing sluggish recovery in TV ad spending.

ViacomCBS (NASDAQ:VIAC) reported quarterly results that topped consensus estimates and said ad declines had bottomed out in the second quarter of the year, sending its shares more than 3% higher.

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