Dow climbs 230 points on strong earnings and stimulus hopes

• US stocks climbed on Friday as investors look to close out a volatile week on a positive note.
• Sentiment was lifted after a series of strong earnings report from major corporations.
• Investor also continue to pin hopes on another round of fiscal stimulus after central banks warned of continued economic weakness due to surging COVID-19 cases.
• Watch major indexes update live here.

US stocks climbed on Friday as investors looked to close out the strong news-driven week on a positive note. 

Sentiment was lifted by strong sales forecasts from tech giants Cisco and Applied Materials, while shares of Disney climbed on impressive results from their streaming-video division.

Investors also continue to pin hopes on another round of fiscal stimulus after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday that a continued surge in daily COVID-19 cases could derail the economy.

Powell and other global central bankers, including Christine Lagarde and Andrew Bailey, advocated for another round of fiscal stimulus, though little progress has been made during the current lame duck session of Congress.

Here’s where US indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday:

• S&P 500: 3,565.80, up 0.8%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 29,309.61, up 0.8% (229 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 11,813.72, up 0.9%

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Stocks have gained on the week, driven by Monday’s announcement from Pfizer and BioNtech that their COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated an efficacy rate of more than 90%.

Outside the US, investor wariness towards China-based companies is on the rise following a report that the highly anticipated Ant Group IPO that was set debut last week was personally pulled by Xi Jinping after Jack Ma made critical comments of government leaders.

On top of that, President Trump signed an executive order late Thursday afternoon that prohibited US investment firms and pension funds from investing in a number of Chinese companies that have ties with its military.

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In corporate news, DraftKings surged 11% after it beat third quarter earnings and said it passed more than 1 million monthly users.

Oil prices declined. West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 2.3%, to $40.16 per barrel. Brent crude, oil’s international benchmark, fell 2%, to $42.67 per barrel, at intraday lows.

Gold rose on Wednesday, increasing as much as 1.1%, to $1,896.82 per ounce.

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