US stocks exchange ended with a multidirectional change in its main stock indicators on Thursday. Standard & Poor's 500 again made a major leap, bringing it closer to a new record mark, which, however, it has not yet been able to reach. The ongoing disagreement and uncertainty over a new fiscal stimulus program in the US is preventing the indicators from moving forward.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell by 0.29% or 80.12 points on Friday, which once again sent it down to the level of 27,896.72 points.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index parted with 0.2% or 6.92 points. Its current level is consolidating at the level of 3,373.43 points. However, it should be noted that during the trading day the indicator managed to reach and cross the 3,387.24 point mark, which is the historically maximum value recorded last time in mid-February of this year.
The Nasdaq Composite index, on the other hand, was the only one that was lucky yesterday increasing by 0.27% or 30.27 points, allowing it to be at 11,042.50 points.
The only important factor that continues to seriously put pressure on the US stock market is the unresolved dispute between Democrats and Republicans regarding a new program of financial support for the country's citizens and the economy. The disagreements remain unresolved. And against the background of an increase in the incidence of coronavirus infection in the world and in the United States, in particular, the situation is becoming very tense. There are almost no hopes for a successful outcome, which is confirmed by statistics on the number of new applications for unemployment benefits.
Thus, the total number of people who first started applying for unemployment benefits last week has decreased by 228 thousand. Now, this figure has moved to 963 thousand. This is the first time that such a significant reduction (to a level below 1 million people), has been recorded since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. And if we take into account all the factors that exist now, which include the highest indicators of stock indicators, as well as the trend towards a decrease in the number of applications for unemployment benefits, we can conclude that the US government has practically no reason to ratify a new portion of incentives.
Analysts suggest that the decision-making process in the Congress will slow down even more, as the authorities will closely monitor the change in the situation and may well refuse the financial injection altogether since they consider it unnecessary.
Yet there are still those who believe that the government has no other choice but to end the negotiations with a positive decision in the end. Market participants express great hope that this process will end very soon. This is what keeps the markets from falling globally.
Among other things, the level of the budget deficit in America became lower in the second month of the summer and reached $ 63 billion. Recall that the same figure last year was at around $ 120 billion, and the June level stopped at around $ 864.1 billion. Such a rapid compensation is due to the fact that additional funds began to flow to the budget after the transfer of tax payments for the previous financial year from mid-April in mid-July this year.
Another highlight was the 0.7% rise in the value of imports in the US in the second month of summer, while preliminary analysts' forecasts were at 0.6%. This increase was the highest in the last three months in a row.
Meanwhile, Asian stock exchanges showed rare weak dynamics on Friday, which is further complicated by multidirectional movement. Most market participants are behaving rather cautiously against the background of the lack of progress in the negotiation process between Democrats and Republicans in the US. Moreover, they began to doubt the rapid recovery of China's economy after the publication of a portion of statistical data.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose slightly by 0.05%.
China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.18% more than its counterpart. In contrast, the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index went down by 0.05%.
South Korea's Kospi Index showed a solid decline amounting to 1.23%.
The Australian S & P / ASX 200 Index rose 0.61%.
Not too encouraging data was released from China stating that the rate of increase in industrial production in the second month of summer remained practically unchanged compared to the level of the previous period. However, a decline was recorded in the retail sector which was a complete surprise for analysts and market participants.
Things are even worse in the investment sector in Chinese fixed assets. This figure for the first half of this year dropped by 1.6%, which corresponds to a loss of 32.92 trillion yuan. At the same time, some experts all argued that the fall would be even greater with not less than 1.8%.
All this raises questions about whether the Chinese economy will be able to demonstrate an immediate recovery, which was mentioned earlier.
