Dow hits 28,000 with jobs, stimulus talks in focus

Chris Ciaccia

Thu, October 1, 2020, 8:44 PM GMT+8

Stocks popped higher to start October as investors placed bets that talks between Congress and the White House would lead to a fresh round of stimulus for a U.S. economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial rose 173 points or 0.6% hitting the key psychological 28,000 level, while the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 500 saw gains of 1.1% and 0.75% respectively.

837,000 AMERICANS FILE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

U.S. weekly jobless claims came in at 837K slightly lower than the 850K that was expected but still elevated. Investors are also looking ahead to Friday's jobs data in which unemployment is expected to drop to 8.2% as employers added an estimated 850,000 jobs.

Personal Consumption rose 1% stronger than expected, as consumers spend, but income dipped -2.7%. And core PCE for August rose 0.3%.

Investors are also watching ongoing stimulus talks between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, who told FOX Business, the Trump administration would not agree to the $2.2 trillion stimulus deal put forth by congressional Democrats. Instead, President Trump instructed his negotiators to go above and beyond the Republican's initial $1 trillion offer, which Mnuchin described as "in the neighborhood" of $1.5 trillion.

Stocks rose Wednesday on hopes the two sides were coming closer together.

STOCKS RALLY ON MNUCHIN-PELOSI STIMULUS HOPES AND RECORD HOME SALES

The proposal, which Mnuchin said he will discuss with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi again on Thursday, will include a second round of direct $1,200 payments to many Americans.

Also included in the proposal would be an additional $20 billion in aid for the battered airline industry. On Wednesday, both American Airlines and United Airlines said they would furlough 19,000 and 13,000 employees respectively.

Late Wednesday, Goldman Sachs Group and Allstate announced they would resume layoffs. Goldman will cut approximately 1% of its workforce, or 400 people, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.

Allstate Inc. will cut 3,800 jobs, taking a $290 million restructuring charge, as it grapples with record low-interest rates and tries to lower costs.

“Implementing this plan is difficult as we still deal with the impact of the pandemic but necessary to provide customers the best value," said Tom Wilson, Chair, President and CEO of Allstate, in a release. "We have expanded transition support for impacted employees including prioritized internal hiring, extended medical coverage, expanded retraining support and help in employment searches.”

This comes as Disney announced plans to cut 28,000 employees.

And Ford CEO Jim Farley announced a restructuring Thursday morning, which included naming a new CFO John Lawler.

At 10 a.m., the ISM Manufacturing Index for September will be released, with economists expecting a reading of 56. August construction spending is expected to show a rise of 0.8%.

At 10:30 a.m., natural gas inventories will be released.

On the corporate front, STMicroelectronics gained more than 7% in pre-market trading after the semiconductor manufacturer raised its 2020 revenue outlook on the back of strong third-quarter results.

Bank stocks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. will be active after the Federal Reserve extended its dividend and buyback cap for Wall Street banks as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Microsoft Inc. unveiled the new Surface Go laptop, aiming to undercut Google Chromebooks and Apple's MacBook Air. The laptop, which will start at $549, has a 12.4-inch display, Intel Core i5 processor, 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. Pre-orders are available now and will be available for sale on Oct. 13.

On Wednesday, Google announced several new devices, including a new Google Chromecast with Google TV, Nest streaming speaker and several new versions of its Pixel smartphones.

Reprinted from yahoofinance, the copyright all reserved by the original author.

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