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| - US stock indices finished higher on Thursday despite no apparent breakthrough in negotiations on long-awaited stimulus to help the economy recover from the Covid-19 downturn. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5 percent at the close to 28,363.66, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.2 percent to 11,506.01. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent to 3,453.49. Policymakers in Washington have been deadlocked for months on passing another stimulus package, and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was "close" to agreeing with Republicans on a new bill, though she acknowledged no agreement had been reached on key issues. "Pelosi has no reason to give up, (President Donald) Trump only wants to send a check to American voters, Democrats and Republicans in Congress disagree on the amount of aid," said Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert Financial Services. "I wonder why we still believe in it." Economists say the world's largest economy needs more fiscal spending to weather the downturn, though a better-than-expected decline in weekly jobless claims to 787,000 last week may have bolstered sentiment. Traders also meditated on third-quarter earnings releases, sending American Airlines up 3.2 percent and Southwest Airlines 5.3 percent higher after both reported smaller-than-expected losses. Coca-Cola Company shares rose 1.4 percent after reporting sales falling nine percent from a year ago, while Tesla climbed 0.8 percent on higher profits. After reporting an undershoot in subscriber growth, Netflix lost 0.8 percent. Goldman Sachs gained 1.2 percent after agreeing to pay $2.9 billion in penalties to settle the longstanding 1MDB Malaysian bribery scandal, and announcing it will claw back $174 million from current and former executives. cs
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