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 Sectors including banking, biotech, gold mining, green energy and infrastructure will be in play this year.
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Stocks lost ground Friday after President-elect Joe Biden announced a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan and investors assessed the kickoff of earnings season following results from a trio of big banks.
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The global case tally for the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 climbed above 93 million on Friday and the death toll climbed above 2 million, with the U.S. leading all nations by cases and fatalities.
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 Walmart Inc. said Mark Lore, chief executive of the retail giant's U.S. e-commerce division, will retire at the end of January after more than four years in the role. Walmart's stock fell 1.3% in premarket trading. Lore joined Walmart in September 2016, after the company acquired Jet.com e-commerce site, of which Lore was founder and CEO. Walmart said Lore will serve as a strategic advisor to Walmart through September 2021. In the fiscal third quarter, Walmart said e-commerce sales rose 79% above year-ago levels, while rival Target Corp. reported digital comparable-store sales growth of 155% during the same quarter. Walmart's stock has advanced 27.5% over the past 12 months through Thursday, while Target shares have run up 69.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 6.8%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Investors let the broader market take a break from recent gains -- but not these shell company stocks.
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U.S. stock-market benchmarks finished lower on Friday, booking weekly losses after a third straight drop in retail sales highlighted weakness in consumer spending at the turn of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 177 points, or 0.6%, to 30,814, based on preliminary numbers. The S&P 500 slipped 0.7% to end around 3,768. The Nasdaq Composite slid 0.9% to finish near 12,999. For the week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both fell 1.5%, while the Dow shed 0.9%. The disappointing retail sales data added to the urgency of further fiscal support. President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Thursday evening, but the bill has drawn widespread skepticism among analysts who question the package's viability. Investors also watched the unofficial start to corporate earnings season, with JPMorgan Chase reporting profits that beat expectations. However, revenues for Citigroup and Wells Fargo fell short of analyst estimates.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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The IRS will start accepting returns a little later than usual, on Feb. 12.
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Exchange-traded funds exposed to utilities outperformed on Friday as investors fled stocks and other risky assets. The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund was up 0.5%, one of the only ETFs tracking the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 to be above water. Invesco's S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF jumped 0.6%, and both the Vanguard Utilities ETF and the iShares U.S. Utilities ETF gained 0.5%. Stocks lost ground Friday after some analysts pointed out that an ambitious fiscal relief plan from President-Elect Joe Biden was likely to face an uphill battle in Congress, even as economic data continued to disappoint.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Now may be the time for value stocks to outperform, says Vanguard Group.
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‘My father-in-law now seems obsessed with moving my wife out of our home to some sort of group home/facility. The mere thought of this seems abhorrent and barbaric.'
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Joe Biden called the $1.9 trillion relief plan he rolled out Thursday night the "first step" on what he hopes will be a road to recovery for the coronavirus-battered U.S. economy. So, what's left?
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Smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp. became the latest Chinese technology group to be targeted by the Trump administration, with its surprise addition to a U.S. investment blacklist sending its shares sharply lower.
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