By Jesse Cohen
Investing.com - Stocks fell on Friday to wrap up a losing week, but Wall Street’s major indexes stayed near their recent record highs amid ongoing optimism over Covid-19 vaccine progress.
The S&P 500 declined 0.1% to end the day at 3,683, the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.2% to settle at 12,377, while the small-cap Russell 2000 dipped 0.6% to finish the session at 1,910.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average meanwhile eked out a gain of 47 points, or 0.2%, to end at 30,046.
Both the Dow and S&P 500 posted their first weekly declines in three weeks, losing 0.6% and 1%, respectively. The tech-heavy Nasdaq suffered a loss of 0.7% over that time frame, however the Russell 2000 scored its sixth straight weekly gain, rising 1%.
Investors will be watching fresh vaccine developments in the week ahead.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted an emergency use authorization of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)'s COVID-19 vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX).
The U.S. government has said it will begin distributing the vaccine around the country immediately, with the first inoculations expected within days.
Markets will also be paying close attention to the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s all-important policy meeting on Wednesday, with market experts split on whether it will tweak its $80 billion monthly bond-buying program.
There is also key November retail sales data, as well as the latest batch of Markit Purchase Manager Indexes and regional Fed surveys due in the week ahead.
Meanwhile, in earnings, there are just a few notable companies reporting their latest financial results, including Nike (NYSE:NKE), and FedEx (NYSE:FDX).