Stocks slip as China tensions, stalled coronavirus relief overshadow job growth

FAN Editor

U.S. equity markets slid Friday morning as Congressional gridlock on a new COVID-19 relief package and growing tension with China overshadowed better-than-expected jobs growth.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 110 points, or 0.4 percent while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.15 percent and 0.16 percent respectively. A higher close for the S&P would extend its winning streak to six, the longest since April 2019.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
I:DJI DOW JONES AVERAGES 27327.29 -59.69 -0.22%
SP500 S&P 500 3347.92 -1.24 -0.04%
I:COMP NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 11099.034299 -9.04 -0.08%

Looking at the economy, U.S. payrolls added 1.763 million workers in July as the unemployment rate fell to 10.2 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting the addition of 1.6 million jobs to push the unemployment rate down to 10.5 percent.

Leaders on Capitol Hill remain far apart on a number of key issues, making it unlikely a deal for a new COVID-19 relief package will be reached before Congress goes on recess Friday evening until Sept. 8.

In international news, President Trump on Thursday evening issued an executive order stating TikTok, a social media app owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance Ltd. that gathers data from its users, would be banned in 45 days if it is not sold to a U.S. company.

Chinese companies traded in the U.S., including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent Music, were all trading lower.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
BABA ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD 257.37 -8.31 -3.13%
BIDU BAIDU INC. 123.30 -2.29 -1.82%
TME TENCENT MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT GROUP 16.06 -0.51 -3.08%

Elsewhere, Apple shares remain in focus as the company continues its quest to become the world’s second company to reach a $2 trillion market capitalization. The stock needs to hit $467.77 to do so. 

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
AAPL APPLE INC. 450.91 -3.88 -0.85%
UBER UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC. 32.58 -2.13 -6.15%
Z ZILLOW GROUP INC 83.83 +12.41 +17.38%

In earnings, Uber Technologies lost $1.78 billion in the three months through June as the COVID-19 pandemic led to its food-delivery service generating more revenue than its ride-sharing business for the first time.

Zillow reported better-than-expected top- and bottom line results as the work-from-home environment has caused people to rethink their living arrangements. The company, which saw revenue spike 28 percent from a year ago, has resumed its business of buying and selling homes and currently has an inventory of 440.

Looking at commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 55 cents to $41.40 per barrel while gold dropped $12.20 to $2,057.20 an ounce.

U.S. Treasurys slipped, causing the yield on the 10-year note to climb 1 basis point to 0.546 percent.

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European markets were mixed, with Germany’s DAX up 0.57 percent while Britain’s FTSE and France’s CAC were fractionally lower.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng led the decline, falling 1.6 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite slid 0.96 percent and Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.39 percent.

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