The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 fell on Friday, on pace for their first weekly loss in three weeks, as the outlook for additional fiscal stimulus remained uncertain.
The 30-stock Dow traded 123 points lower, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 slipped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.6%.
For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 were down 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. The Nasdaq entered Friday’s session down 0.5% week to date.
Friday’s decline came as negotiations over a coronavirus relief deal dragged on. Lawmakers seek to pass a bill before lifelines expire at the end of 2020, but disagreements over state and local stimulus, unemployment assistance and stimulus checks still exist.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s staff informed congressional leadership offices that Senate Republicans likely would not support a $908 billion bipartisan proposal, according to NBC News. Earlier on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that bipartisan negotiations were leading to “great progress.”
“The tenor of headlines out of Capitol Hill around stimulus sounded a bit better than Mon-Wed but there’s still no sign of a breakthrough,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note.
The House has passed a one-week federal spending extension to avoid a shutdown through Dec. 18 to buy more time to reach a stimulus agreement.
Share of companies hardest hit by the pandemic recession fell in premarket trading Friday. Carnival, United Airlines and Gap each fell more than 2% in premarket trading. Tesla shares fell 1.8% after a surprise downgrade by Jefferies.
Without fresh stimulus, millions of Americans could lose unemployment benefits in the new year. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims jumped last week to 853,000, the highest total since Sept. 19, as new lockdown restrictions weighed on businesses amid rising coronavirus cases.
Sentiment was downbeat on Friday even as a key Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended the approval of Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. The recommendation marked the last step before the FDA gives the final approval to broadly distribute the first doses throughout the U.S.
Bucking the negative trend was Disney. On Thursday, the company said its Disney+ service has 86.8 million subscribers and expects have between 230 million to 260 million subscribers by 2024. The stock rose 7% in premarket trading.
Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.
