The Dow Jones index finished 0.2% lower, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were flat
US markets lost momentum on Friday after 4 straight days of gains on Wall Street, as vote counting across US battleground states showed Democrat Joe Biden poised for victory.
US stocks from Monday to Thursday, posted the best 4-day streak since April, and Friday featured positive economic data for traders to peruse as unemployment dropped a full point to 6.9% in October, a bigger-than-expected fall.
The US economy regained 638,000 jobs last month, far more than analysts had been expecting, the Labor Department data showed, despite rising coronavirus cases and Congress’ failure to pass another spending package to aid the economy’s recovery.
But the Dow Jones index closed 0.2% lower, while the Nasdaq was flat for the day as was the S&P 500. But despite the lacklustre Friday, this week was the best since April with a gain of 7.3% for the S&P.
Oil fell, with the West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude falling back nearly 4% after a volatile week as US President Donald Trump continued making unsubstantiated claims he is being cheated of an election victory.
Despite some profit taking on Friday, stocks generally surged over the week as a Biden win became more likely, with traders betting on him paving the way for a bigger fiscal stimulus package compared to Trump, said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst with ThinkMarkets.
While control of the upper chamber has yet to be determined, a “Republican-controlled Senate will make it unlikely that Trump’s corporate tax cuts will be rolled back,” he added.
Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell on Thursday said more US stimulus was “absolutely essential” to support the economy.
Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a deal before the election, owing to disputes over how much to spend.
The prospect of further monetary easing measures from the Fed and a new stimulus have weighed on the dollar, boosting safe haven investment gold.
The rather less-traditional haven of Bitcoin meanwhile “blitzed through $15,000 for the first time since the beginning of 2018…as investors rode a momentum trade that has been building up a head of steam ever since PayPal announced it would let users buy, sell, and hold a variety of major cryptocurrencies,” noted Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.
