- US stocks edged lower on Friday as investors mulled Joe Biden’s election victory, better-than-expected economic data, and the market’s dwindling momentum.
- Biden is projected to be the country’s next president after taking the lead in Pennsylvania and Georgia on Friday morning, according to Decision Desk HQ.
- On the economic-data front, the US added 638,000 jobs in October, handily beating the 580,000 estimate from economists. The unemployment rate fell to 6.9% from 7.9%.
- Still, investors weighed whether to secure profits or see whether the market’s rally could continue for a fifth day.
- Watch major indexes update live here.
US equities edged lower on Friday as investors digested Joe Biden’s election victory, the market’s weakening upward momentum, and a better-than-expected jobs report. Biden is projected to be the next US president after taking the lead in Georgia and Pennsylvania on Friday, according to data from Decision Desk HQ. His advances in states where President Donald Trump had been winning put Biden above the 270 electoral votes needed to be named president-elect. The election’s conclusion came after more than two full days of ballot counting and anticipation across the country. Republicans are still favored to maintain control of the Senate, creating the divided-government scenario investors warmed up to throughout the week.Traders unwound bets on election outcomes as major stock indexes closed in on posting their best weekly gains since April. Tech giants sank after leading the market higher through the week. Premarket stock futures trimmed early losses after the government’s monthly nonfarm-payrolls report showed a stronger labor-market performance than expected. The US economy added 638,000 jobs in October, more than the 580,000 additions expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The improvement was still smaller than the 672,000 job additions in September. Nick Bit: The US has lost twenty million jobs to the corona virus, only ten million have returned.. I do not call this a great job report.The unemployment rate fell to 6.9% last month from 7.9%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Economists had expected the rate to hit 7.6%. The report marked the sixth straight month of job additions since the coronavirus outbreak drove outsized losses in April. While the pace of recovery has slowed from its initial rebound, Friday’s reading suggested the economy was healing faster than anticipated despite a lack of new fiscal support.”This loss of momentum is set to continue, and we do not anticipate payroll employment returning to its pre-COVID level before the end of next year,” said Seema Shah, the chief strategist at Principal Global Investors.
Soaring virus cases in the US threaten to further curb the bounce-back. The country reported more than 121,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, becoming the first nation to report a single-day increase of more than 100,000.
With advanced economies around the world reinstating lockdown measures as their case counts surge, similar actions in the US could freeze hiring activity.Nick Note: Unless your a screaming idiot its a forgone conclusion Biden has won so suck it up. Trump and his new BFF (sue them all Rudy Giuliani) will be dragged out of the white house kicking and screaming all the way. A Biden win is now priced into the market. What the market has not priced is the election dog fight, the fact the corona virus has gone wild. With the most US infections ever. In fact their is another round of infections striking the White House with Trumps chief of staff testing positive.Tne key event is out of range of the markets headlights and that is a sharp turn in the road it has yet not seen. That key event bigger then the Biden win is the strong possibility (over 80%) that the Democrats will take control of the senate. Talk about driving off a cliff!. Now what makes this wreck even bigger is the election dog fight is alienating voters and taking resources from the Run off elections for 2 key senate races. The Democrats will win giving them control of the house and senate. You do not have to worry about radical Islam anymore. But Liberal commie socialists girls gone wild. In the house and senate and white house as in Che Guevara soul mate your new comrade Vice President Kamala. And she has the T shirt to prove it
For the record Castro introduced Che to Cuban cigars. Cohibas and he smoked them with the paper ring on. As a point in fact Raul introduced me to Cohibas which I smoke one a day every day..