Paramount stock rises after FCC approves Skydance merger
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* Walt Disney marks biggest intraday pct gain since March
* Energy and financials lead sector declines
* Qualcomm among biggest drags on S&P 500
* Dow up 0.07%, S&P 500 down 0.30%, Nasdaq down 0.48%
(Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were
lower on Friday, as uncertainty over fresh economic stimulus
dented confidence, although strong gains from Walt Disney helped
keep the Dow Industrials afloat.
The U.S. Senate, facing a midnight deadline on Friday,
unanimously approved a one-week extension of federal funding to
avoid a government shutdown and to provide more time for
separate negotiations on COVID-19 relief and an overarching
spending bill. Lawmakers have wrangled for months over a fresh fiscal
stimulus package to support an economy battered by coronavirus
lockdowns. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday suspended
indoor dining in New York City, effective Monday. "It's like holiday shopping, you think you've got time and
the next thing you know it's the day before the holiday and
you've got to hammer it out and get it done," said Tom Hainlin,
global investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management's
Ascent Private Wealth Group in Minneapolis.
"The base case is that they are going to get it done, the
base case is we are going to get some stimulus package put
through and because we have some of the forbearance things
falling off at the end of the year, there is a shot clock on
these."
While recent data has showed a faltering recovery in the
labor market, a survey from the University of Michigan on Friday
showed consumer sentiment improved more than expected in
November, while a gauge of inflation rose moderately.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 20.27 points,
or 0.07%, to 30,019.53, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 11.01 points, or
0.30%, to 3,657.09 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
59.74 points, or 0.48%, to 12,346.07.
A 15.61% surge in Walt Disney Co DIS.N shares helped push
the Dow slightly higher, as the media company announced a heavy
slate of new shows for its streaming services and said it
expects as many as 350 million global subscribers by the end of
fiscal 2024. The jump put the stock on track for its biggest
one-day percentage gain since October 2008. With daily coronavirus death tolls at alarming levels, fresh
business restrictions in many U.S. states and increasing
layoffs, investors are counting on more fiscal relief to sustain
a nascent economic recovery as most government aid has dried up.
Another 2,902 U.S. deaths were reported on Thursday, a day after
a record 3,253 people died, a pace projected to continue for the
next two to three months even with a rapid rollout of
inoculations.
However, conflicting headlines on progress toward a stimulus
deal have kept investors cautious, even as optimism over a
working vaccine pushed Wall Street's main indexes to record
highs this week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday raised the
possibility of stimulus negotiations dragging on through
Christmas. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue
an emergency use authorization for Pfizer Inc's PFE.N COVID-19
vaccine later in the day, the New York Times reported.
The U.S. drugmaker's shares, however, gave up early gains
and fell 1.17%.
Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O slumped 7.21% and was among the top
decliners on the benchmark S&P 500, following a Bloomberg News
report that Apple Inc AAPL.O has started building its own
cellular modem for future devices, a move that would replace
components from the chipmaker. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.60-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 155 new highs and 13 new lows.