US markets end higher on Wednesday

01 Oct 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday, but off the session’s best levels, as doubts grew about Washington’s ability to provide the US economy with another round of fiscal stimulus ahead of the November elections. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans and Democrats remain far apart on a deal. The markets benefited from the release of some upbeat US economic data, including a report from payroll processor ADP showing private sector employment surged up by more than expected in the month of September. ADP said private sector employment spiked by 749,000 jobs in September after jumping by an upwardly revised 481,000 jobs in August. Street had expected employment to increase by 650,000 jobs compared to the addition of 428,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report showing pending home sales in the US jumped to a record high in the month of August. NAR said its pending home sales index spiked by 8.8 percent to 132.8 in August after surging up by 5.9 percent to 122.1 in July. Street had expected pending home sales to increase by 3.2 percent. A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 329.04 points or 1.2 percent to 27,781.7, Nasdaq gained 82.26 points or 0.74 percent 11,167.51 and S&P 500 was up by 27.53 points or 0.83 percent to 3,363.

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