Briefs for Saturday

Dec. 25, 2020 Updated Fri., Dec. 25, 2020 at 10:14 p.m.

Stocks rose in China and were little changed in Japan on Friday, with most world markets closed for Christmas holidays.

The mixed session followed an advance during Wall Street’s shortened Christmas Eve trading as investors began the holiday weekend seemingly untroubled over President Donald Trump’s threat not to sign a major economic stimulus package approved by Congress this week.

The economic package remained in limbo after Republican lawmakers rejected Trump’s demand that the end-of-year spending bill give most Americans $2,000 COVID relief checks – far more than the $600 members of his own party had agreed to.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell less than 0.1% to 26,656.61 after the government reported that retail sales fell 2% from a year earlier in November, while consumer prices dropped the most they have in a decade.

The Shanghai Composite index surged 1% to 3,396.56. Shares also rose in Taiwan and in Thailand.

Olympic sponsor deal reached

The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games announced Thursday that it had reached a deal with all 68 domestic sponsors to extend their contracts for a year, through 2021.

The corporate sponsors have plans to make additional contributions of about 22 billion yen, which is set to be incorporated into the organizing committee’s revenue.

Since the decision to postpone the Tokyo Games to summer 2021 was made in March, executive members of the organizing committee, including President Yoshiro Mori, visited each of these companies to request an extension of their sponsorship contracts.

“We’ve received word [from the companies] that they’d like to support us as much as possible to ensure that the Games can be held,” Mori said at a news conference Thursday. “We can’t thank them enough for their support.”From wire reports

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