Nasdaq Ekes Out Record Close on Vaccine, Stimulus Optimism

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Nasdaq eked out a record close Tuesday on rising optimism over the recovery as the pace of vaccine rollouts picks up and infections continue to fall. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.03%, or 9 points. The S&P 500 was down 0.08%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.14%. 

The U.S. reported fewer than 100,000 new cases for the second straight day Monday and hospitalizations continued to fall in the wake of increasing vaccinations across the country.  The Biden administration is set to boost the supply of vaccines sent directly to states by 5% over the next week as Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) increase production.

Communication services was among the biggest sector gainers, led by Twitter (NYSE:TWTR),  which closed up 3% as Wall Street talked up the social media company's earnings due Tuesday after the markets close. "We expect [Twitter's] Q4 results to beat consensus estimates for revenue driven by a second consecutive quarter of higher advertiser demand and audience monetization," Wedbush said in a note.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) rose more than 2% after the company announced a deal to buy Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU) for $2.4 billion. The merger is expected to ramp-up EA's mobile business and diversifies its range of the mobile games.

Energy stocks, however, came under pressure following a decline in oil majors Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) and oilfield services provider TechnipFMC (NYSE:FTI).

TechnipFMC PLC (NYSE:FTI) fell nearly 7% ahead of the its removal from the S&P 500.

On the stimulus, President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with chief executives of a several blue chip businesses including Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) to discuss his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.

The flat close for the S&P 500 comes as market participants continue to make bullish calls, citing an ongoing boost to markets from high levels of liquidity.

"So while we remain on guard for elevated volatility to strike at some point in the weeks ahead, we believe investors should stay the course on the road to S&P 4,000," Janney Montgomery Scott said in a note.

In other news, Simon Property (NYSE:SPG) climbed more than 3% after the mall operator delivered an upbeat outlook for 2021, forecasting a recovery in retail tenants as well as an improvement in rent collection rates.

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