US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a bipartisan proposal for a US$908 billion stimulus package. US President-elect Joe Biden said that he would not immediately remove Chinese tariffs. Salesforce (-8.5%) shares slid after analysts called its US$27.7 billion purchase of Slack Technologies (-2.6%) “expensive”.
But Pfizer (+3.5%) and BioNTech (+6.2%) shares climbed after receiving UK vaccine approval. Shares of NetApp gained 9.4% on an upbeat profit forecast. The Dow Jones index closed 59 points or 0.2% higher. The S&P 500 index was up 0.2% to a record close. But the Nasdaq index fell by 5 points or 0.1%.
