Fox Business Flash’s headlines are here. See what clicks on FoxBusiness.com.
U.S. stock futures rose higher after trading in negative areas earlier Monday ahead of the first 2021 opening clock on Wall Street.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ek: DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGE | 30606.48 | +196.92 | + 0.65% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 3756.07 | +24.03 | + 0.64% |
| I: COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITION INDEX | 12888.282427 | +18.28 | + 0.14% |
On Wall Street, the benchmark of the S&P 500 index rose 0.6% on Thursday, its last trading day of 2020, to a high of 3,756.07. It rose 16.3% that year, or a total return of about 18.4% with dividends.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.7% to a record 30,606.48. The Nasdaq Composition added 0.1% to 12,888.28.
STOCK TRADE HIGHER BEFORE FINAL TRADING DAY OF YEAR
Vaccine development by US, European and Chinese producers has helped boost investors’ optimism that a normal return to normal could follow the worst economic downturn in the 1930s.
The United States and Britain have vaccinated Pfizer Inc. approved and Britain approved a second vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford University. China has approved its first domestically developed vaccine. Others are being tested.
U.S. stock futures rose higher after trading in negative areas earlier Monday ahead of the first opening clock of 2021 on Wall Street. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images)
Governments may not be throwing as much stimulus into their economies as last year, but policies are ‘still in a very loose situation’, supporting stock prices and lending, says Kerry Craig of JP Morgan Asset Management in a report.
“Investors need to look at the latest beginnings of the new economic cycle and focus on the improved profit outlook,” Craig said.
Vaccine optimism outweighed concerns about rising infection rates in the United States and some other countries and conflict over economic aid in Washington, Axi’s Stephen Innes said in a report.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO by clicking here
Traders are ‘perhaps a little too eager’, but believe that vaccines ‘will provide the ultimate economic start-up, which will provide a huge increase in corporate profits,’ Innes said.
Meanwhile, Asian stock markets also showed a rise on Monday, 2021’s first trading day, boosted by optimism about coronavirus vaccinations after Wall Street closed the year at a new high.
Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney progressed. Tokyo refused.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8% to 3,499.02 and the Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 0.5% to 27,366.10.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo decreased by 0.7% to 27,243.14 after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the government was considering declaring a state of emergency for the Japanese capital and three surrounding prefectures due to the increasing virus cases.
Suga called on restaurants and bars to close at 8pm, saying it would be difficult to restart a travel promotion program suspended last month. He said the government would speed up the approval of coronavirus vaccines and begin injections in February.
The Kospi in Seoul rose 2.4% to 2,943.11 and Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 added 1.5% to 6,684.20.
India’s Sensex opened less than 0.1% at 47,923.24. Singapore and Jakarta also progressed while Bangkok declined.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
In energy markets, standard US crude rose 56 cents to $ 49.08 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 12 cents to $ 48.52 on Thursday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 67 cents in London to $ 52.47 a barrel. It rose 17 cents to $ 51.80 the previous session.
The dollar fell to 103.03 yen from Thursday’s 103.27. The euro rose to $ 1.2254 from $ 1.2211.