US close: Wall Street extends losses to nine days, longest stretch since 1980

Wall Street slipped into the red in the final two hours of trading, extending its losing streak to nine consecutive days, the longest such stretch since 1980, amid election jitters and despite what economists hailed as a positive reading on the US jobs market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.24% or 42.39 points to 17,888.28 points, the S&P 500 slipped 0.17% or 3.48 points to 2,085.18 points and the Nasdaq fell 0.24% or 12.04 points to 5,046.37 points.

Oil prices were also down amid reports of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia that some worry might foil a potential deal to slash production.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures gave back 56 cents to end the day at $44.07.

Data from the Labor Department showed that hiring rose in October as wage growth accelerated at its strongest pace since 2009.

Non-farm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 161,000 from an upwardly revised gain of 191,000 in September, while the jobless rate fell to 4.9% in October from 5.0% as the labour force contracted.

Average hourly earnings advanced 0.4% month-on-month (2.8% year-on-year), versus forecasts for a rise of 0.3% (2.6%).

"A solid employment report for October further clears the path for a December Fed rate hike. News of another decent rise in non-farm payrolls and an uptick in pay growth comes hard on the heels of business surveys showing the US economy having gained further growth momentum in October," chipped in Chris Williamson at IHS Markit.

Nonetheless, late in the session the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta, Dennis Lockhart, cautioned that a December rate hike was not yet necessarily a foregone conclusion, due to the potential risk of turmoil around the presidential elections, although the economic 'bar' for not doing anything was high.

By the end of trading, Fed funds futures were pricing in 66.8% odds of a December rate hike by the Fed, down from 71.5% in the previous session, according to the CME´s Fed Watch tool.

Acting as a backdrop, a RealClearPolitics average of polls showed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s lead had been trimmed to 1.7 points by late on Friday, up a touch from 1.3 points late on Thursday, but still lower than her seven point lead in mid-October.

“Political uncertainty has already taken its toll in the past few weeks, with the year’s lowest trading levels reported in October and today’s weaker than expected jobs market figures," Paul Sirani, chief markets analyst at Xtrade, said.

In corporate news, Starbucks’ shares rose 1.49% as fourth-quarter results released late on Thursday said the coffee giant was ahead of estimates for earnings per share and revenue.

Whereas shares in camera maker GoPro were down 6.53% after it posted weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings, while shares in Monster Beverage decreased 5.88% after its results missed targets and sales fell.

From a sector standpoint, the largest losses were seen in the following industrial groups: Healthcare (-4.21%), Electronic office equipment (-3.26%) and Marine transportation (-2.17%).

Dow Jones - Risers

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $82.31 1.28%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $58.82 0.67%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $120.91 0.61%
General Electric Co. (GE) $28.44 0.57%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $49.96 0.46%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $47.08 0.45%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $30.00 0.37%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $101.33 0.28%
American Express Co. (AXP) $65.51 0.28%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $68.61 0.16%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $85.08 -1.76%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $104.67 -0.99%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $92.45 -0.99%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $33.61 -0.94%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $67.76 -0.91%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $108.84 -0.90%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $58.71 -0.84%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $41.69 -0.81%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $69.16 -0.67%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $111.04 -0.61%

S&P 500 - Risers

NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) $11.03 8.88%
Mohawk Inds Inc. (MHK) $190.75 7.78%
Motorola Solutions Inc (MSI) $75.90 6.47%
Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) $58.11 5.25%
Alcoa Corporation (AA) $25.20 4.35%
CIGNA Corp. (CI) $121.65 3.70%
United States Steel Corp. (X) $19.86 3.44%
Allergan plc (AGN) $195.00 3.27%
AES Corp. (AES) $12.11 3.06%
Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) $82.39 3.05%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) $53.37 -80.19%
Fluor Corp. (FLR) $44.80 -13.50%
Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) $51.08 -9.98%
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $23.49 -7.70%
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO) $15.72 -6.26%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $30.45 -6.16%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $32.48 -5.88%
Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (WLTW) $116.78 -5.57%
Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) $67.18 -3.99%
Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) $26.01 -3.88%