By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened mixed again on Friday, holding on to Thursday's gains after hitting new record highs in anticipation of a stimulus package that still remains out of reach.
By 9:35 AM ET (1435 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrialized Average was up 4 points, essentially unchanged, at 30,308 points. The S&P 500 index was down 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1%.
Momentum has drained from the market after reports indicating that the long-awaited stimulus package is not likely to be agreed until the weekend, although lawmakers on both sides reiterated after Thursday's talks that a deal is within reach and that they won't leave for their holiday recess until a deal is in place.
Traders are bracing for volatility on what is the last day of trading for December options contracts in both single stocks and index products. Such 'quadruple witching' days typically get very choppy in the final minutes before settlement, and the big role played by options trading in this year's rally may lead to a repeat of that. Softbank (OTC:SFTBY), one of the biggest players in the options market this year, has however said it will allow its positions to largely roll off at the end of the day.
Brokers typically hedge their short options positions by buying the underlying stock. If the options aren't rolled over, the brokers are likely to unload some of their positions.
Against that backdrop, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock, which has been one of the most actively traded through options all year, rose to a new record high before retracing a little to trade up 2.7%. Big Tech stocks edged slightly lower, as the accumulation of antitrust actions against the big Internet platform companies began to weigh a little, although here too the influence of the options expiry was also felt.
Another big lawsuit was launched by the Attorneys-General of 38 states against Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) on Wednesday, alleging abuse of its dominant position in the search market.
However, the news wasn't all bad, as consumer products giant Unilever (NYSE:UL) said it would end its boycott of advertising on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). Facebook stock was nonetheless down 0.6%.
Elsewhere, Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock fell another 5.1% as investors took profits ahead of an expected decision later in the day by the Food and Drug Administration to give its Covid-19 drug emergency use authorization. It;s still up more than 50% since Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech first indicated that their vaccine, which uses the same messenger RNA technology as Moderna's, was effective in treating the disease.
FedEx (NYSE:FDX) stock also fell 4.4% after it failed to give guidance for 2021 in its quarterly update after the bell on Thursday, prompting fears that the online shopping boom that has propelled its share price this year may cool quickly if the pandemic fades again as spring arrives and vaccines become widely distributed.