U.S. markets and stock exchange traded funds gained Wednesday as investors tried to look past the coronavirus woes and towards the economic recovery process.
On Wednesday, the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) was flat, SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEArca: DIA) was up 0.9% and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) rose 0.6%.
Investors seemed to have brushed off threats from President Donald Trump to pass on an $892 billion Covid-19 relief bill, which he believed should include a higher dollar amount for individual stimulus checks, Reuters reports.
“Either we’ll get exactly what was passed, which is very positive for the economy, or we’ll get something even bigger and the market likes it either way,” Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital Llc, told Reuters.
Pushing For Recovery
Meanwhile, equities also pushed higher in anticipation of a sooner-than-expected economic recovery as aggressive monetary policies, high liquidity, stimulus, and a coronavirus vaccine could support growth ahead.
The technology sector, which has outperformed in the post-coronavirus pandemic environment, lagged behind other cyclical sectors as investors shifted toward more undervalued segments of the market.
“Technology is going to be a major driver of growth, but at the same time there’s better value in the value segment of the market, and that’s especially true if the vaccine enables the economy to recover,” Chuck Lieberman, Chief Investment Officer of Advisor Capital Management, told Reuters.
U.S. household spending also dipped in November for the first time since April, and incomes also fell, but jobless claims dropped to 803,000 last week, a retreat from a three-month high, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“This economic data really doesn’t surprise me, it actually just coincides with what we’re seeing from the labor market,” Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors, told the WSJ. “If we can’t get the labor market healing it really puts a risk and challenge on the consumer and that’s the biggest part of our economy.”
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