U.S. stock indexes are mixed Thursday as Wall Street’s tug of war continues between worries about the worsening pandemic in the present and optimism that a vaccine will rescue the economy in the future. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in afternoon trading after spending much of the day flipping between small losses and gains. Wall Street’s huge November rally has slowed this week as fears about the economy buckling in the near term collide with hopes that stronger growth will arrive next year. A discouraging report on Thursday underscored the fears, showing that more U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than the week before. It was a worse number than economists expected and the first increase in five weeks.

Source: Daily Sun November 19, 2020 13:30 UTC