On Friday, the US stock indexes were trading mixed for the obvious reason. The US lawmakers did not come to the common denominator about the stimulus bill.
Nevertheless, the US stocks closed last trading week in the red. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 halted their three-week rally and closed with 0.95% and 0.5% losses respectively. The Nasdaq logged even a deeper 1.1% fall, having closed with losses for the first time over the recent 4 weeks.
Such dynamics of the stock market prove suggestions that investors are in the wait-and-see mood. The previous week displayed that any news about progress on the path to passing the stimulus package triggered a rally of stocks. However, the stock market was discouraged when the news was not confirmed by actual moves.
From this viewpoint, obvious reasons lie behind the mixed dynamics on Wall Street. On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated that despite convincing progress in the talks on the government financial aid, lots of crucial questions remained unsolved. At the same time, incumbent US President Donald Trump said that he did not want government aid to be allocated for the states ruled by the Democratic party. Such discord in the ranks of the US government made an immediate impact on sentiment of large stock investors. The S&P 500 carried on with a climb while the Dow Jones dropped.
Remarkably, the equity market has been unaffected by the fierce presidential race. On Thursday, Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden confronted in the final debate. However, this crucial event made a minimal influence over the US stocks. The polls following the debates revealed that Joe Biden was still taking the lead, though with a narrow margin.
There is a reason behind the positive trend in the S&P 500. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted a final approval of the antiviral drug remdesivir that can be used nationwide for the COVID-19 treatment. No wonder, shares of Gilead Sciences Inc., the remdesivir producer, gained 0.2% in response.
Here are some figures about the US stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 28.09 points (0.1%) on Friday night and closed at 28,335.57.
On the other hand, the Standard & Poor's 500 climbed 11.9 points (0.34%) to trade at 3,465.39.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 42.28 points (0.37%) to close at 11,548.28.
Corporate earnings reports made their contribution to market sentiment. The stock of Illinois Tool Works Inc. surged the whopping 2.5%. The heavy machinery manufacturer reported on lower net profits in Q3 2020. Its net profits decreased to $582 million in Q3 from $660 million in the previous quarter. Revenue of Illinois Tool Works Inc. dropped 4.9% to $3.31 billion. Nevertheless, such figures came in better than expected.
Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc., both ride hailing services, grew 0.1% and 1.7% respectively. Earlier, a California appeals court ruled that both Uber and Lyft must classify their drivers as employees rather than independent contractors which violates the labor law. Interestingly, even in light of this court decision, the stocks extended their rally.
Among bad performers, Intel Corp.'s shares slumped 10.6%. Its net profit contracted 28% in Q3 2020 while revenue fell over 4%.
Tesla Inc.'s shares lost 1.2% in value. The famous manufacturer of electric vehicles decided to withdraw nearly 30,000 cars of the Model S and Model X models from China's market due to the faulty suspension.
