Stocks treaded water to end the week Friday, as markets increasingly shift their focus away from the vaccine and toward the progress of another government relief package.
What passes as progress on Capitol Hill these days is a stopgap funding bill that will keep the federal government from shutting down for a week as lawmakers wrestle over liability protections for businesses arising from pandemic-related issues.
The final stimulus bill is poised to be around $900 billion — if it ever gets passed.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 30,046.
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NYC to shut indoor dining; vaccine near approval. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York City restaurants would be required to close their indoor dining operations on Monday, as the city moves to prevent as much of a winter case surge as it can.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as of Friday afternoon, was expected to imminently approve the vaccine from Pfizer (ticker: PFE) and BioNTech ( BNTX), which is already being administered in the U.K.
The White House reportedly told the head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, to submit his resignation if the agency didn’t approve the vaccine by the end of Friday.
Disney soars. Shares of Disney ( DIS) jumped to all-time highs on Friday as investors applauded the dizzying pace of upcoming releases, which included 10 new Marvel series, 10 “Star Wars” spinoffs and 15 programs from its Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios and live-action divisions.
The company also now has more than 86.8 million Disney+ subscribers just over a year after its launch, dramatically exceeding expectations and sparking analyst discussion about catching up with Netflix ( NFLX) in a few years’ time, which has about 200 million subscribers of its own today.
DIS stock soared 13.6% higher on Friday.
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Disney Stock Soars to All-Time Highs on Streaming News originally appeared on usnews.com
