Wall Street ended Friday's session mixed as Congressional lawmakers continue discussions over additional coronavirus stimulus as daily new infections continue to surge and recent economic trend signal the need for more relief. For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 posted their first weekly decline in three weeks, falling 0.6% and 1%, respectively. The Nasdaq also declined, losing 0.7% amid persistent uncertainty.
Washington still seeks to pass a stimulus bill before the end of 2020, but lawmakers remain in disagreement over state and local government stimulus, unemployment assistance and another round of stimulus checks.
Meanwhile, the University of Michigan's preliminary reading on consumer sentiment in December unexpectedly rose, with the headline index increasing to 81.4 from 76.9 in November.
"Consumer sentiment posted a surprising increase in early December due to a partisan shift in economic prospects," the Surveys of Consumers chief economist Richard Curtin said in a statement. "Most of the early December gain was due to a more favorable long-term outlook for the economy, while year-ahead prospects for the economy as well as personal finance remained unchanged."
Here's how the market settled to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Stocks, Disney
For Sector Performance, sectors on the S&P continued their mostly negative trend into the end of the week. Communications Services
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
The week ahead is gearing up to make or break the "Santa rally" that usually occurs at the end of the year. Next week's events include the Federal Reserve holding its final meeting of the year, the F.D.A. is expected to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, Congress may pass a new stimulus package, and Tesla will move into the S&P 500 at closing bell on Friday.