The S&P had a second straight winning day as the U.S. government tweaks its strategy for rolling out COVID-19 vaccines. The federal government is now recommending that states starts immunizing all residents 65 and older in an easing of prior guidelines in order to speed up the deployment of the vaccines that have already been approved. Meanwhile, the House plans to vote on the impeachment of President Donald Trump for the second time since he has been in office. Wall Street has been choppy with modest moves so far this week after the three major indexes closed at record high levels last Friday.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the headline consumer price index rose 0.4% in December, with the core CPI rate edging up a restrained 0.1%.
In Federal Reserve news, the Fed said in its latest Beige Book report that economic activity has "increased modestly" since its last report, although conditions "remained varied." The Fed added that the majority of Districts reported a rise in employment, though the pace was slow.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Intel (INTC) gained 7% after the company announced Pat Gelsinger, formerly of both VMware (VMW) and Intel itself, will take over as CEO. Meanwhile, VMware shares fell almost 7% on what several analysts have called bad news for it and good news for the chipmaking giant.
Target (TGT) announced that comparable sales in the combined November/December period grew 17.2%, driven by a 4.3% increase in traffic and a 12.3% increase in average ticket. Target Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said, "The momentum in our business continued in the holiday season with notable market share gains across our entire product portfolio."
Affirm (AFRM) soared in its debut on the public market. Shares of the financial technology company opened at $90.90 after its IPO priced at $49 per share.
In COVID-19 news, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) was in focus after Reuters reported that the company's chief science officer Dr. Paul Stoffels said the company intends to have clear data on how effective its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine is by the end of this month or early February. J&J expects it may have a U.S. approval for the vaccine by March, according to Reuters.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was WiMi Hologram Cloud (WIMI), which jumped over 14% after announcing it obtained a patent for a 3D holographic pulse laser device. Also higher was Canoo (GOEV), which gained 13.6% after The Verge reported that Apple (AAPL) held talks with the electric vehicle startup during the first half of 2020.
Among the notable losers was Marathon Petroleum (MARA), which declined 12% after it announced a $250M registered direct offering. Also lower was Party City (PRTY), which fell just under 8% after its preliminary revenue missed expectations.
INDEXES: The Dow fell 8.22, or 0.026%, to 31,060.47, the Nasdaq gained 56.52, or 0.43%, to 13,128.95, and the S&P 500 advanced 8.65, or 0.23%, to 3,809.84.
