US markets end mostly higher on Friday

17 Oct 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly higher on Friday, after moving sharply higher early in the session. Sharply pulled back in the final hour of trading, dragged the tech-heavy Nasdaq into negative territory. The rally seen in early trading as much better than expected retail sales data partly offset recent concerns the economic recovery may be stalling. A report from the Commerce Department said retail sales spiked by 1.9 percent in September after rising by 0.6 percent in August. Street had expected retail sales to climb by 0.7 percent. Excluding a jump in sales by motor vehicles and parts dealers, retail sales still surged up by 1.5 percent in September after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.5 percent in August. Ex-auto sales were expected to rise by 0.5 percent compared to the 0.7 percent increase originally reported for the previous month. Closely watched core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, jumped by 1.4 percent in September after dipping by 0.3 percent in August.

Adding to the positive sentiment, the University of Michigan released a report showing a bigger than expected improvement in consumer sentiment in the month of October. The preliminary report said the consumer sentiment index rose to 81.2 in October from the final September reading of 80.4. Street had expected the index to inch up to 80.5. Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Federal Reserve showing an unexpected decrease in industrial production in the month of September. A surge in new coronavirus infections in Europe, the Americas and parts of Asia, is also giving traders reason to turn cautious. The new caseloads prompted governments in France and Britain to impose new restrictions aimed on containing the outbreak contributed to some of the selling in the market earlier this week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 112.11 points or 0.39 percent to 28,606.31 and S&P 500 rose 0.47 points or 0.01 percent to 3,483.81, while Nasdaq was down by 42.31 points or 0.36 percent 11,671.55.

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