Wall Street pinned its hopes on a $2 trillion stimulus bill and brushed aside a record 3.2 million in job losses last week for a third straight day of gains, including the biggest three-day rally for the Dow since 1931, plus more in today’s Closing Bell on Money & Markets.
The Top Story
Investors seemed to pay little attention to the fact unemployment claims shattered a previous record set way back in 1982.
Instead, markets extended their rally to a third day despite the Department of Labor reporting more than 3.2 million Americans filing for unemployment. For context, the previous jobless record was 695,000.
The weekly jobless claims are the most timely labor market indicator and could signal that the U.S. economy is in a recession — which Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell all but admitted in another news bit we covered today.
Powell said the Fed’s emergency lending is dependent only on getting a backstop from the Treasury Department.
“It is not a blank check in the sense that we are limited by the ability to take losses,” Powell said. “Effectively, $1 of loss-absorption is worth $10 in loans. “When it comes to lending, we are not going to run out of ammunition. That just doesn’t happen.”
But stocks decided that didn’t make much of a difference. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.3% — lifting its three-day gains to over 20%. The S&P 500 moved up 6.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was 5.6% higher.
Stock Market Update: Closing Bell*
S&P 500: 2,630 (+6.2%)
DOW: 22,552 (+6.3%)
NASDAQ: 7,797 (+5.6%)
GOLD: $1,629.40 (+1%)
BITCOIN: $6,722.08 (+0.9%)
U.S. 10-YEAR YIELD: 0.82%
*- as of 4:15 p.m.
A Big Win
This morning, we told you to watch Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F). The automaker had its credit rating cut to junk status by S&P. Moody’s also put Ford on “watch.” Shares of Ford were down 2.4% to $5.25.
Golden Nuggets
A rough jobs report and an equities rally didn’t stop gold from jumping in price.
Gold futures moved 0.6% higher to $1,643 an ounce.
But gold was alone in moving up in the precious metals market. Silver futures fell 1.9% to $14.59 while platinum dropped 1.1% to $737.10 an ounce. Palladium also joined the fall, to the tune of 1% to $2,223.70 an ounce after Wednesday’s monumental rise.
Cannabis Corner
An $850 million acquisition in the cannabis space is now off.
The deal between Phoenix-based Harvest Health & Recreation (Over-the-Counter: HRVSF) and Chicago’s Verano Holdings was mutually terminated, the companies said Thursday.
It would have been one of the largest acquisitions in marijuana industry history.
The companies cited the COVID-19 outbreak as well as financial and regulatory challenges as reasons why the acquisition was terminated.
Federal Reserve Poised to Inject Trillions Into Economy
Once the latest coronavirus stimulus package is signed into law, the Federal Reserve is prepared to drop even more money into the U.S. economy.
Thanks to $454 billion set aside in the aid package for the Treasury Department to backstop lending, the Fed will likely beef up some of its emergency facilities and establish its Main Street Business Lending Program to help smaller companies, according to Bloomberg.
The money provided by the aid package essentially helps the Fed absorb any losses it may incur on its emergency loans.
Today’s Big Winners:
Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) +23.9%
Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) +14.4%
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) +13.8%
NetApp Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) +12.6%
Lam Research Corp. (Nasdaq: LRCX) +11.4%
Today’s Big Losers:
Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) -10.1%
ViacomCBS (Nasdaq: VIAC) -5.1%
Expedia Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE) -2.2%
Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) -2%
Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) -2.1%
Check back for the most important news and numbers each day after the Closing Bell, only on Money & Markets.