Expressing some weariness after its election-defying gains, the markets pulled back at the start of Friday.
Vote counting in Georgia and Pennsylvania continues at a methodical-cum-glacial pace, with Joe Biden reducing Trump’s lead in both. Victory in the latter is the safer bet for the Democrat, as it would allow him to lose Arizona – which has already been called for Biden, but is increasingly tight – and still cross the magic 270 Electoral College votes mark.
Yet with the incumbent rapidly mounting (baseless) legal challenges, while claiming the election is being stolen from him in a poisonous speech designed to undermine the very foundations of the electoral process, the markets are understandably more anxious than they have been since the early moments of Wednesday morning.
The FTSE was down half a percent, while the DAX and CAC shed 1% and 0.9% respectively. Currently, the Dow Jones is set to follow the lead of its European peers, with the futures pencilling in a 220 point drop.
There is still some way to go until the US open, however, with the markets in the kind of situation that means the Europe-only part of the session can be discounted given the weight of the stateside focus.
If investors weren’t dealing with enough, there’s also a nonfarm jobs report to look forward to this afternoon. Whether or not it breaks through is another matter entirely. Nevertheless, analysts are looking for a month-on-month decline in the headline figure, from 661,000 to 595,000, but with the unemployment rate also dropping, from 7.9% to 7.7%.
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