![Wall Street's main stock indexes opened lower on Monday as investors grow anxious over growing COVID-19 cases and a stimulus bill deadlock that Washington cannot seem to overcome [File: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/wallstreet-2.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
US stock investors are increasingly concerned over Washington’s stimulus deadlock and surging coronavirus infections.
Unemployment
![US stocks climbed higher on Friday with 10 of 11 S&P sectors gaining at the open as investors cling to hope that political differences will be put aside and Washington will soon pass a historic $2 trillion aid package [File: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nyskyline.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Investors are digesting a mixed bag of earnings and eyeing the stalemate in Washington over a new stimulus deal.
![A line forms outside a temporary unemployment office in Kentucky [File: Bryan Woolston/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-10-04T211645Z_1647560518_RC2XBJ9RGVIX_RTRMADP_3_GLOBAL-ECONOMY-TOOLS.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The next president faces the monumental task of keeping the recovery on the rails and redressing...
![The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic recession will drastically speed up the depletion of Social Security funds, a bipartisan think-tank warned on Thursday [File: Brian Snyder/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/socialsecurity2.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
US retirement and disability trust funds could run dry as early as 2029 and 2023 respectively, a...
![Though 23 million Americans are collecting unemployment benefits, the housing market remains red hot, with sales of existing homes rising to levels not seen since the housing bubble peak in 2006 [File: Michael Conroy/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AP_20269697086782.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Millions of Americans are being left behind by an economic recovery that is deepening inequality.
![Analysts at Goldman Sachs said it is unlikely a new round of coronavirus relief aid will pass Congress before the United States' November 3 election [File: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/wallstreet.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The clock is ticking for Washington to pass a new fiscal aid package before November 3 elections.
![Automation and a new division of labour between humans and machines will disrupt 85 million jobs around the world, but more jobs are coming and both the public and private sector must take action to prepare, a new World Economic Forum report has found [File: Flavio Lo Scalzo/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/jobs.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Some 97 million new jobs could be created, but the public and private sectors must do more to prepare workers for them.
![Wall Street's main indexes gained at the opening bell on Tuesday on hopes that lawmakers in Washington will overcome their differences and pass a critical stimulus aid package to address the coronavirus pandemic [File: Carlo Allegri/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nyny.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The United States Department of Justice filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit in federal court against Alphabet’s Google.
![A poll for the World Economic Forum found that Russians exhibited the deepest unease about job security, with 75 percent of respondents saying they are concerned about their employment [File: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/365196222.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
As COVID-19 surges, more than half of global workers are concerned they could lose their jobs in the next year.
![Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic and financial crisis in decades made worse by the coronavirus pandemic [File: Hussein Malla/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AP_20279596125320.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The IMF expects Lebanon’s economy to shrink 25 percent this year, one of the worst in MENA.
![Uncertainty reigns on Wall Street as United States officials struggle to pass another round of stimulus measures [File: Lucas Jackson/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/USA.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The clock is winding down on Washington to overcome its partisan differences and pass a new virus relief aid package.
![Millions of United States parents have been working from home since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March and attempting to strike a balance between work, school and family time [Courtesy: Andrew James]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/carrieandchild.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
What for many was a temporary break from the office to stop the spread of COVID-19 has become a new way of life.
![Wall Street's main stock indexes edged higher on Friday on coronavirus vaccine hopes and fresh numbers showing that retail sales got an unexpected boost last month [File: Mike Segar/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nyse.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Investor spirits were buoyed after US gov’t figures showed that retail sales increased more than expected in September.
![A man checks the temperature of a woman from Honduras who was trying to reach the United States, after Guatemalan authorities escorted her back, at the Corinto border between Guatemala and Honduras, in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala [File: Luis Echeverria/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/honduras.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The collapse of Central America’s economies has pushed families deeper into poverty and reactivated regional migration.