Democrats and Republicans in Washington are in the final two weeks of negotiations before the November 3 presidential election on new spending measures to boost the US economy after the coronavirus pandemic caused grievous damage earlier in the year.
Wall Street stocks shot to fresh records on Thursday following blowout earnings from large banks and strong US labor and retail sales data.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.9% at 34 036.05, its first close above 34,000 points.
The broad-based S&P 500 also ended at a record, up 1.1% at 4 170.45, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.3% to 14 038.76.
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