The market opened today with the already overnight breaking news that Trump had contracted COVID-19. And the market immediately sank almost 300 points. But evidently investors didn’t find the news too surprising since there was also an almost immediate trend to the upside achieving full recovery shortly after noon.  News that the House had passed a stimulus package (though unlikely to be approved by the Senate) helped to the upside but then the employment news of only 661,000 new jobs added in September, below forecast and the slowest increase since May, put additional pressure to the downside to ultimately close the Dow down 134 points. We remain a long ways from regaining the 22 million jobs lost in this shutdown. Of course, the big elephant in the room is that the really big news of Trump in the space of less than 18 hours since announcing his infection with only mild symptoms to being taken to the hospital didn’t hit until after the market closed so Trump’s progress will be monitored very closely this weekend and who knows how the markets will react come Monday.  So there was much uncertainty today and that was reflected in the below average volume of 9.3 billion. 

FRI  OCTOBER 2, 2020  4:22 pm    

Wall Street closes sharply lower as Trump tests positive for coronavirus

By Stephen Culp

DJ: 27,816.90  +35.20       NAS: 11,326.51  +159.00      S&P: 3,380.80  +17.80     10/1

DJ: 27,682.81  -134.09      NAS: 11,075.02  -251.49       S&P: 3,348.44  -32.36      10/2

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday as news that U.S. President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 put investors in a risk-off mood and added to mounting uncertainties surrounding the looming election.  Tech shares weighed heaviest on the indexes, but the blue-chip Dow’s losses were mitigated by gains in economically sensitive cyclical stocks.  Despite Friday’s sell-off, the S&P and the Nasdaq both gained 1.5% on the week, while the Dow ended the session 1.9% higher than last Friday’s close.

Trump tweeted late Thursday that he had contracted the coronavirus and would be placed under quarantine, compounding the unknowns for an already volatile market.  But stocks pared losses after the White House provided assurances that Trump, while experiencing mild symptoms, is not incapacitated.  “This injects further uncertainty into the outcome of the election,” said Roberto Perli, head of global policy research at Cornerstone Macro in Washington. “My read is that markets have demonstrated an aversion of late especially to uncertainty, not so much to one or the other candidate winning.”

Equities also got a brief boost after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that an agreement to provide another $25 billion in government assistance to the airline industry was “imminent.”  “Markets are also paying attention to the likelihood that another stimulus package will pass soon,” Perli added. “If that happens it could offset at least in part the uncertainty generated by the COVID news.”  House Democrats passed a $2.2 trillion fiscal aid package on Thursday, but the bill is unlikely to be approved in the Republican-controlled Senate.  Partisan wrangling over the size and details of a new round of stimulus have stalled, over two months after emergency unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans.

Data released on Friday showed the recovery of the labor market could be losing steam. The U.S. economy added 661,000 jobs in September, fewer than expected and the slowest increase since the recovery began in May.  Payrolls remain a long way from regaining the 22 million jobs lost since the initial shutdown, and the ranks of the permanently unemployed are swelling.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 134.09 points, or 0.48%, to 27,682.81, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 32.36 points, or 0.96%, to 3,348.44 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 251.49 points, or 2.22%, to 11,075.02.  Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, tech .SPLRCT suffered the biggest loss, while real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU enjoyed the largest percentage gains.

In a reversal from recent sessions, market leaders Apple Inc AAPL.O Amazon.com AMZN.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O were the heaviest drags on the S&P and the Nasdaq.  Commercial air carriers rose on news off a possible new round of government aid, with the S&P 1500 Airline index .SPCOMAIR rising 2.3%. Tesla Inc TSLA.O shares plunged 7.4% after the electric car maker's third quarter vehicle deliveries, while reaching a new record, underwhelmed investors.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.13-to-1 ratio favored decliners.  The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 56 new highs and 34 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.30 billion shares, compared with the 9.93 billion average over the last 20 trading days.