By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened mixed on Wednesday as reports suggesting that a stimulus deal on Capitol Hill is near were offset by the weakest retail sales report in six months, the most concrete evidence yet that the latest wave of the pandemic is slowing the economy.
The news overshadowed what was set to be the main event of the day – the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions and press conference.
By 9:35 AM ET (1435 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was essentially flat, up a mere 6 points at 30,206 points, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite were also up less than 0.1%.
All three indices had made strong gains on Tuesday on signs that Congress was close to finally agreeing a stimulus package after months of fruitless haggling.
Earlier, the Commerce Department said retail sales fell by 1.1% in November, their first decline in six months and worse than expectations for a 0.3% decline. October's sales numbers were also revised downwards. Coming against the backdrop of record coronavirus infection rates and tightening lockdown measures, the numbers appear to be clear evidence that the constant stream of layoffs due to the pandemic is feeding through into household consumption.
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the figures showed that an outright contraction in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter is becoming increasingly likely, although he added the caveat that "the weakness in sales is not due to a lack of resources; households are not constrained, in aggregate, by a lack of cash."
As such, he added, "softer spending now just adds to the pent-up demand for the post-Covid world."
The data were enough to encourage some profit-taking on recent trades, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock falling 1.4% and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock falling 5.8%.
They also overshadowed the clearest signs in some time that Congress will agree on a relief package for the economy before it goes into recess at the end of the week.
"We agreed we will not leave town until we've made a law," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was quoted by newswires as saying on Wednesday morning. ""We made major headway for hammering out a targeted relief package...that can pass both chambers by bipartisan majorities."
Other stocks making big early moves included Chinese-based streaming company iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ), which fell 15% after a discounted secondary offering of shares and convertible debt worth around $1.5 billion, which will be channeled among other things to paying for new streaming content.
Penumbra (NYSE:PEN) stock also fell by 7.8% as the furore over the medical device maker's catheters continued.