Stocks rally ahead of Biden’s coronavirus stimulus plan

U.S. stock markets rallied Thursday morning as traders awaited details of the COVID-19 relief program proposed by President-elect Joe Biden.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 95 points, or 09.31%, in the first few minutes of trading, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.23% and 0.3% respectively.

STIMULUS PLAN JUICE STOCKS COMING FROM BIDEN

Biden’s proposal, which is expected to cost up to $ 2 trillion, could further expand assistance to households and businesses in addition to easing the burden on states and local governments. Future Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, was seeking a $ 1.3 trillion relief package for COVID-19.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, President Trump was impeached Wednesday for “incitement to insurgency.” The 232-197 vote saw all House Democrats and 10 of their Republican counterparts backing the measure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the Upper House would not be able to start a trial until Jan. 19 at the earliest – a day before Biden’s inauguration.

On the stock side, Delta Air Lines Inc. cut its daily cash consumption in half to $ 12 million in the three months through December while posting a slightly larger quarterly loss than analysts at Wall Street had expected. The Atlanta-based airline lost a record $ 12.39 billion last year.

BlackRock Inc. reported better-than-estimated quarterly earnings and revenue, with assets under management reaching a record $ 8.68 trillion. A trio of major banks will report the results on Friday, including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

Elsewhere, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has asked Tesla Inc. to recall 158,000 vehicles due to faulty touch screens.

Meanwhile, GameStop Corp. surged for a second day in a row amid suspected short-term pressure as short interest recently hit 138% of outstanding shares. Shares of the video game retailer gained 58% on Wednesday.

Shares of Intel Corp. have continued their momentum since Wednesday when they gained 6.97% after CEO Bob Swan’s resignation was announced next month. He will be replaced by VMWare Inc. CEO Pat Gelsinger.

In the news of the deal, Google and Fitbit reached their $ 2.1 billion deal after UK regulators approved the deal. US regulators, meanwhile, have yet to sign. In a corporate blog, Google said the deal “has always been about devices, not data, and we’ve made it clear from the start that we will protect the privacy of Fitbit users.”

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 46 cents to $ 52.45 a barrel and gold slipped $ 9.70 to $ 1,845.20 an ounce.

The UK FTSE 100 accelerated gains in Europe, rising 0.5%, the German DAX 30 by 0.24% and the French CAC 30 by 0.17%.

Asian markets ended mixed with a 0.91% drop in the Shanghai Composite Index in China, while the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong climbed 0.85 respectively. % and 0.93%.