U.S. Stocks Fall With Congress at Odds on Aid Bill: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell after Republican demands left Congress without a deal on a federal spending bill. Tesla Inc. edged higher in heavy trading ahead of its inclusion in the S&P 500.

The benchmark index halted a three-day winning streak, though ended well of session lows with a late rally in aflood of trading volume associated with the quarterly expiration of options and futures on stocks and indexes. Almost 200 million shares of Tesla traded hands, four times the 30-day average, as funds benchmarked to the S&P 500 adjusted ahead of the carmaker’s Monday debut.

Stocks spent the session lower as the likelihood that Congress would reach an aid deal ahead of the weekend dwindled. Crude topped $48 a barrel in New York. The dollar rose for the first time in five days. The 10-year Treasury yield moved back above 0.93%. Gold slipped. Copper topped $8,000 a ton for the first time in more than seven years on rising demand and supply bottlenecks.

Congress continues to wrangle over a legislation that would give people and businesses a lifeline to withstand the increasing economic toll caused by the pandemic. A bid by Republicans to constrain the Federal Reserve’s crisis lending programs is threatening to derail negotiations. The virus continued to rage across the country, forcing more jurisdictions to enact tighter restrictions.

“Markets have been pretty strong obviously in November and first part of December, so if we get a little bit of a selloff that shouldn’t surprise people a whole lot,” Keith Gangl, a portfolio manager at Gradient Investments, said in an interview. “It’s quadruple witching so it’s usually a little bit of different actions at the end of the day so we’ll see if that happens”

Here are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 Index fell 0.4% at 4 p.m. in New York.
• The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dipped 0.4%.
• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 0.4%.
• The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined 0.3%.

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%.
• The euro dipped 0.2% to $1.2239.
• The British pound decreased 0.6% to $1.3509.
• The onshore yuan weakened 0.1% to 6.54 per dollar.
• The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% to 103.32 per dollar.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 0.94%.
• The yield on two-year Treasuries was flat at 0.121%.
• Germany’s 10-year yield declined less than one basis point to -0.57%.
• Japan’s 10-year yield decreased less than one basis point to 0.01%.
• Britain’s 10-year yield sank five basis points to 0.24%.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.2% to $48.93 a barrel.
• Brent crude dipped 0.1% to $51.46 a barrel.
• Gold strengthened 0.1% to $1,886.61 an ounce.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.