By Dec 18 Reuters Wall Street indexes were set to take a breather from recent gains on Friday as a coronavirus stimulus package remained in focus ahead of a weekend deadline for a deal, with retail stocks rising on the possibility of strong holiday sales.
Markets are likely to see increased trading volumes in the day due to the expiration of stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures at the end of trade also known as quadruple witching.
Retail stocks including those of Kohls Corp, Walmart Inc and Macys Inc rose between 0.3 and 2.2 in premarket trading after the National Retail Federation flagged the possibility of high preChristmas demand.
The market is a little bit skeptical because the stopwatch is on and time is running out, people want to see the deal actually inked, said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
The stimulus getting approved would be bullish for the retail sector because the vast majority of that money will go right into holiday shopping on expectation of receiving those stimulus checks even if they come after Christmas.
U.S. SP 500 Eminis were up 1 point, or 0.03 at 806 a.m. ET, Dow Eminis were up 6 points, or 0.02, while Nasdaq 100 Eminis were up 2.25 points, or 0.02.
Wall Streets three major indexes had ended at record highs on Thursday as the passing of a bill seemed imminent, with bipartisan lawmakers saying the COVID19 pandemics worsening toll meant that failure to agree on…
