NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S stocks seesawed on Wednesday, digesting the previous session’s huge rebound, with investors torn as optimism about an imminent $2 trillion coronavirus package was offset by concerned about the lasting economic impact from the pandemic. [.N]
The S&P 500 .SPX was up 1.17% and yields on U.S. treasury securities US10YT=RR US2YT=RR were mainly off as markets waited for senators to vote on a $2 trillion bipartisan package of legislation to alleviate the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, hoping it will become law quickly.
The Senate was due to convene at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), though timing of the vote was unclear. The House of Representatives is expected to follow soon after. President Donald Trump supports the measure, the White House said, and has talked about reopening U.S. businesses by Easter on April 12.
COMMENTS
RON TEMPLE, HEAD OF U.S. EQUITY, LAZARD ASSET MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK
“On the fiscal stimulus, this is very important progress but the devil’s also in the details. We still don’t have the legislation to read for particulars in how it will be executed and there are some concerns about how long it will take for money to arrive at the households, how long will it take for small businesses to access funding.
“This is not the all-clear, it’s just material progress. Until we know we can go back to work safely and that we can go to restaurants and go to stores and actually engage with other humans in close proximity, I don’t think you can make an economic call or a market call. It’s premature to be trying to call the bottom, and trying to use past crises and looking at valuation levels, while it can be instructive, there aren’t any parallels historically to use given that