Stocks on Wall Street open higher after 3 days of losses | National News
A currency trader talks with his
A currency trader talks with his colleague at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Friday after disappointing U.S. jobs and economic data.
A currency trader watches monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Friday after disappointing U.S. jobs and economic data.
A currency trader passes by screens showing foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Friday after disappointing U.S. jobs and economic data.
A currency trader watches monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Friday after disappointing U.S. jobs and economic data.
FILE – Pedestrians pass the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021, in New York. Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street following three straight days of losses. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in the first few minutes of trading Friday, Feb. 19.
Stocks moved slightly higher in early trading Friday, recovering some ground after three straight days of losses. Investors remain focused on the future of the COVID-stricken economy and the potential for more stimulus to fix it.
The S&P 500 index was up 0.3% as of 10 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 0.3%, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.5%. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks was up 1.1%, a sign that investors were anticipating more economic growth and potentially higher inflation.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which is used to set mortgage rates, rose to 1.31%, though that’s still low by historical standards.
Wall Street continues to look to Washington for direction, as Democrats move forward with their $1.9 trillion stimulus plan to combat the coronavirus. Incremental moves were made this week, with the Biden administration signalling it would drop its call for a $15-an-hour minimum wage in this stimulus plan in order to get support from moderate Democratic senators.
The stimulus plan would include $1,400 checks to most Americans, additional payments for children, and billions of dollars in aid to state and local governments as well as additional aid to businesses impacted by the pandemic.
Much of the recent economic data has shown the U.S. economy could benefit from additional stimulus. Wall Street got a weekly jobless claims report Thursday that showed 861,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, a rise from the previous week and higher than Wall Street had forecast. The Federal Reserve, in the minutes from its January meeting, also laid out the case for why additional stimulus would be necessary and not cause the economy to overheat.