The Wall Street ended its four-day winning streak and closed mostly lower on Friday as traders impatiently waited for the presidential election results. This was also one of the best weeks since April as investors’ confidence got a boost driven by strong jobs data. The Dow and S&P 500 ended in the red, while the Nasdaq somehow managed to finish the day in green.
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) declined 0.2% or 66.8 points to end the day at 28,323.40. The tech-heavy Nasdaq somehow managed to end the session in the green, gaining 0.1% or 4.30 points to end at 11,895.23. Shares of Facebook, Inc.
FB
, Alphabet, Inc.
GOOGL
and Apple, Inc.
AAPL
, declined 0.4%, 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), while Facebook and Apple each carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
The S&P 500 dipped 0.03% or 1 point to close at 3,509.44. Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) and Financials Select Sector SPDR (XLF) were the two worst performing sectors that took a toll on the S&P 500, declining 2.2% and 0.8%, respectively. Six out of eleven sectors of the benchmark index closed in negative zone.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 9.9% to 24.86. A total of 10.36 billion shares were traded on Friday, higher than the last 20-session average of 9.23 billion. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.41-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.63-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.
Uncertainty Over Election Results
The four-day winning streak at Wall Street came to a halt as uncertainties over election results mounted. Democratic nominee Joe Biden was inching towards a win with 253 electoral votes, while President Donald Trump was trailing at 214 but a clear winner was still uncertain as vote counting was on in key states Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona. Biden was leading in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Economic Data
Finally, there was some reason to cheer, as the weekly jobs data came in. The Labor Department said that 638,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in October, surpassing expectations of 503,000. This once again proves that the U.S. economy is gradually bouncing back from the coronavirus-related shutdowns in March and April. Overall the unemployment rate dropped to 6.9% from 7.7% in September.
Private sector showed health growth, with employment rising to a staggering 906,000, higher than the September figures of 892,000. However, there was a steep decline in government jobs 147,000 Census workers lost their jobs that took the overall job losses to 268,000.
The biggest job additions came in sectors that were the hardest hit after the coronavirus outbreak. Leisure and hospitality sector added 271,000 jobs, with bars and restaurants accounting for 192,000 employments among them. Also, there was a jump of 208,000 jobs in professional and business services. The retail sector also added another 104,000 jobs in October.
Weekly Roundup
The Wall Street came up with its best weekly performance since April amid uncertainty around the presidential and congressional election results. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 gained 9% and 7.3%, respectively, for the week. This was also the best performance by the S&P 500 in a election week since 1932. The Dow Jones jumped 6.9% for the week. All the three indexes posted their best weekly performance since April 9.
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