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Investing.com — Wall Street opened at fresh record highs after Congress’s delayed certification of the presidential elections results was followed by a statement from Donald Trump agreeing to an orderly transition of power.
The developments settled nerves after a mob of armed and violent Trump supporters stormed the government building on Capitol Hill on Wednesday attempting to overturn the election result. Investors have chosen to look through the shocking scenes – and another week of painfully high jobless claims numbers – and focus on the prospect of amped-up stimulus spending from a Congress that is now set to be united under Democratic Party control. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who is set to take over leadership of the chamber from Mitch McConnell, said late on Wednesday that one of the party’s first priorities would be to raise the direct stimulus checks to households to $2,000 from the $600 currently foreseen.
By 9:45 AM ET (1445 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 116 points, or 0.4%, at 30,946 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.9% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 1.4%.
Earlier, the Labor Department had said that the number of initial claims for jobless benefits stayed at the high level of 787,000 last week, a negligible decline from 790,000 the week before but still better than expectations.
