At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 248.74 points, or 0.83%, to 30,218.26. The S&P 500 index added 32.40 points, or 0.88%, to 3,699.12. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index grew 87.05 points, or 0.7%, to 12,464.23. For the week, the Nasdaq spiked by 2.1%, the S&P 500 surged up by 1.7% and the Dow shot up by 1%.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel said that Republicans are looking for a streamed down version of a stimulus bill. The Republicans have backed off their demand for businesses to get coronavirus-related liability protections as part of a year-end rescue package.
Investors are closely watching whether policymakers will be able to clinch an agreement on a long-awaited coronavirus relief bill and a $1.4 trillion spending bill, with Friday eyed as a deadline to avoid a government shutdown. The U.S. Congress will vote this week on a one-week stopgap funding bill to provide more time for lawmakers to reach a deal on both spending and pandemic relief.
The Food and Drug Administration concluded in detailed analysis from the Pfizer vaccine being considered for U.S. distribution met the criteria in a clinical study, paving the for approval. An outside panel of scientific advisers will review the FDA report. The board is expected to be followed within a few days by the FDA granting emergency authorization for the vaccine.
Health-care stocks rallied on news that the U.K. began administering doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech. Shares of Moderna climbed 6.5% after Switzerland increased its confirmed orders for its COVID-19 vaccine doses to 7.5 million. Johnson & Johnson gained after the company said it could obtain late-stage trial results of a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine it is developing, earlier than expected. Pfizer Inc also rose 3.2% as it cleared the next hurdle in the race to get its COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use, after the U.S. health regulator released documents raising no new safety or efficacy issues.
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