Market Snapshot: U.S. stock futures struggle for direction as investors focus on fiscal stimulus prospects, vaccine progress

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U.S. stock-index futures traded on either side of unchanged Thursday, waiting to take cues from talks on another round of aid spending by Congress as investors await weekly data on jobless benefit claims.

What are major benchmarks doing?

Stocks rose slightly in choppy trade Wednesday:

What’s driving the market?

Stocks have hit a series of records in recent days as drugmakers made rapid progress toward COVID-19 vaccines, but renewed efforts in Congress toward passing another round of financial aid for consumers and businesses as the pandemic intensifies could move to center stage for investors.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers earlier this week proposed a $908 billion plan, but hopes for a deal were dealt a blow after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., indicated he remained in favor of a smaller package near $500 billion.

Democratic leaders, who had previously called for a much bigger package of more than $2 trillion, endorsed the bipartisan proposal on Wednesday. Analysts warned of the potential for disappointment.

“Time is running out to pass a bill before Congress breaks, the $908 billion bipartisan proposal has yet to be written into a draft legal text and is likely to come up against resistance from Senate Republicans who prefer a smaller package,” wrote analysts at UniCredit Bank, in a note.

“In our view, the chances of a deal before year-end have increased, but our base case remains that a deal is more likely to be agreed in January/February under the new administration,” they said.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases continue to rise in many U.S. states.

The U.S. tallied 199,988 new cases on Wednesday, and at least 2,885 people died, according to a New York Times tracker, the most in a single day since the start of the outbreak began earlier this year. In the last week, the U.S. has averaged 164,024 cases a day, while a record 100,226 COVID-19 patients were in U.S. hospitals on Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project, topping Tuesday’s record of 98,691.

Weekly data on jobless benefit claims are due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern from the U.S. Labor Department. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch, on average, look for first-time applications for benefits to have ticked up to 780,000 last week from 778,000 a week earlier.

The IHS Markit services-sector purchasing managers index is due at 10 a.m., along with the November services sector index from the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM measure is expected to tick down to 56.4% from an October reading of 56.6%. A reading of more than 50% indicates an expansion in activity.

Which companies are in focus?

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December 04, 2020 at 01:40AM

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