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| - Wall Street stocks were solidly higher at midday Friday, winning back some of the ground lost in a brutal rout as Washington policymakers reported progress on stimulus to address the coronavirus' economic hit. The gains came as analysts expressed hope the market has bottomed out following a brutal three-week stretch that has ended the longest "bull market" in history after the S&P 500 fell 20 percent from its peak level. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.2 percent at 21,461.18 at around 1600 GMT, recovering some of the losses in its worst session since 1987, but well below session highs. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.2 percent to 2,510.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.9 percent to 7,266.86. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said President Donald Trump's administration and congressional leaders were "very close" to an agreement on a stimulus package that reportedly will include paid sick leave and small business tax relief. Uncertainty over the stimulus package and sharp partisan rhetoric was an exacerbating factor in Thursday's session, where selling was also spurred by Trump's shock travel ban on Europe and a series of cancelation announcements from professional sports leagues, entertainment companies and others that deepened recession fears. "Calling the exact bottom of the markets is usually difficult to do," said Shawn Cruz, manager of trader strategy at TD Ameritrade. "I do get the sense that the majority of the selling and the downward movement is over, but there's certainly the potential for maybe a little more of an assault." Structuring a federal plan to address the economic hit caused by the outbreak differs from the situation in 2008, where the focus was on shoring up financial institutions, he said. "It's really coming from the ground level of the economy is where they're going to need to find a way to support individuals and businesses through this rough patch," Cruz added. But the pandemic is hitting the travel and hotel industries, as well as energy companies hit by falling oil prices. Several hard-hit stocks gained, including Boeing, up 4.5 percent, Halliburton, up 1.6 percent and Hilton Worldwide, up 2.9 percent. But others that have been beaten down fell further, including Exxon Mobil, down 5.1 percent, Dow, down 4.1 percent and Expedia, down 9.8 percent. jmb/hs
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