A strong finish to the week for Wall Street’s main indexes rose to all-time highs on Friday as data showing the slowest US jobs growth in six months and COVID-19 infections and deaths hit record levels.
But instead of being worried about the impact of the new wave of infections and deaths investors now expect a new fiscal relief bill from Congress to help the coronavirus-hit economy in early 2021.
But the need for a new stimulus/support hep from Congress has been apparent for months and yet the Republicans and President Donald Trump have done nothing except bleat about debt and deficits – when they have done more in the past three years to run America’s finances into deep deficit and surging debt.
The US Labor Department’s November jobs report showed non-farm payrolls increased by 245,000 jobs in November, the smallest gain since the labor recovery started in May.
The Dow rose 248.74 points, or 0.83%, to end at 30,218.26, the S&P 500 gained 32.40 points, or 0.88%, to finish at 3,699.12 and the Nasdaq added 87.05 points, or 0.7%, to finish the week at 12,464.23.
That left the Dow up 1% for the week, the S&P 500 up 1.67%, and Nasdaq up more than 2.1%.
For the week, Eurozone shares rose 0.2%, Japanese shares gained 0.4% and Chinese shares rose 1.7%. Australian shares were up half a percent.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average and the small-cap Russell 2000 also posted record closing highs.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield hit its highest level since March at over 0.98%, helping support financial shares which are highly sensitive to interest rates.
Energy shares were also bolstered by gains in oil prices, with shares of Diamondback Energy up 11.6% and Occidental Petroleum up 10.7%. Shares in Exxon Mobil and Chevron did OK – their gains were just under 4% each.
Boeing shares fell 1.9% as a top company executive said the company is reducing production of its 787 Dreamliner for the fourth time in 18 months.
