Stock market news live updates: Stocks trade mixed as investors eye earnings, Trump's virus orders

Emily McCormick · Reporter
9 min read

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Stocks traded mixed, as market participants considered more earnings results and the potential for more virus-related stimulus measures. The S&P 500 came within 0.8% of its record closing high from February 19.

[Click here to read what’s moving markets heading into Tuesday, August 11]

Investors digested a new slate of executive orders from President Donald Trump, who sidestepped Congress in moving ahead on Saturday with actions to provide support for the virus-hit economy. The executive orders drew the ire of Democratic lawmakers, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling the actions “absurdly unconstitutional” during a CNN interview. Administration officials defended the orders, however, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying on Fox News that the orders were cleared by the Office of Legal Counsel.

The executive actions implement $400 weekly federal enhanced unemployment insurance benefit, relief for student borrowers, and temporary payroll tax suspension starting Sept. 1, and direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Director of the CDC to limit residential evictions and foreclosures. The move to quickly roll out these actions came after two weeks of talks in Congress failed to convene lawmakers around terms of a new relief bill.

“President Trump issued executive orders in the four policy areas that had been expected. The extra $400 unemployment payment is likely to last only a month, however. The payroll tax deferment would last through year-end, but consumers might be hesitant to spend extra income without a change in tax law,” Goldman Sachs economists Alec Phillips and Blake Taylor wrote in a note Sunday.

The new executive orders could, however, add pressure on Congress to come together to roll out a more comprehensive fiscal package, they added. Already late last week, Democratic lawmakers pared back the size of their proposal to and offered a plan totaling about $2 trillion, from the about $3.5 trillion they had called for earlier this year, and in doing so narrowed the fissure between their and Republican lawmakers’ $1 trillion proposal. The Trump administration struck down the offer, however, and no firm timeline for further stimulus talks among lawmakers has been set.

“We continue to expect a package worth around $1.5 trillion to become law in August,” the Goldman Sachs economists said. “The new executive orders create two deadlines around the end of the month, which could provide a new incentive for Congress to act.”

Other economists, however, took the opposite stance, and suggested the roll-out of the orders could disincentivize further progress from Congress.

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