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* U.S. Senate to vote on $2,000 COVID-19 aid checks
* Boeing rises on first 737 MAX flight after safety ban
* Snapchat-owner Snap Inc jumps on price target raise
* Dow up 0.04%, S&P up 0.09%, Nasdaq down 0.10%
(Updates to open)
By Devik Jain and Supriya R
Dec 29 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow hovered at record
levels in choppy trading on Tuesday as bets that fiscal aid will
fuel a vaccine-led economic recovery boosted sentiment in the
final days of the year.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq, however, retreated as investors
locked in profit in some of the market leading names such as
Apple Inc AAPL.O and Tesla Inc TSLA.O .
Wall Street's three main indexes opened at new highs for a
second straight session after President Donald Trump signed a
$2.3 trillion fiscal bill that restored jobless benefits to
millions of Americans and averted a federal government shutdown.
While the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives
approved a proposal to increase the COVID-19 payment checks to
$2,000 from $600, it faces a tough path in the
Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday.
"This stimulus package represents an economic bridge until
full vaccination... It's a very good thing for the economy, for
the people who are hurt and for the stock market," said Thomas
Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital Llc in New York.
Meanwhile, more than 2 million Americans have been
inoculated, helping investors overlook a surge in infections
that topped 19 million, with California, a major U.S. virus hot
spot, likely to extend strict stay-at-home orders. Unprecedented monetary as well as fiscal stimulus and
positive vaccine data have helped the S&P 500 .SPX bounce back
from a virus-led crash in March.
The benchmark index is looking at its best fourth-quarter
performance since 2003 as investors returned to
economically-sensitive stocks from the so called 'stay-at-home'
plays on hopes of economic recovery.
After a recent rally on hopes of full economic reopening,
financial .SPSY , energy .SPNY and industrials .SPLRCI
posted the steepest losses among the S&P sectors.
At 10:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 11.99 points, or 0.04%, to 30,415.96, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 3.26 points, or 0.09%, to 3,738.62 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC fell 12.94 points, or 0.10%, to 12,886.49.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX ticked higher after hitting
a three-week low with trading volumes expected to be low in the
holiday-shortened week.
Shares of planemaker Boeing Co BA.N added 1% as its 737
MAX plane resumed passenger flights in the United States for the
first time after a 20-month safety ban was lifted last month.
Snapchat owner Snap Inc SNAP.N gained 8% after Goldman
Sachs raised its price target on the stock on upbeat revenue
growth prospects. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.6-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 2.6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 21 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 161 new highs and 22 new lows.