Stocks edge higher, dollar slips as Biden victory looms
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By Herbert Lash and Tom Arnold
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Global stock markets edged higher and the dollar sank to a two-month low on Friday as investors awaited final vote processing in the U.S. presidential election that more and more showed Joe Biden on the verge of winning the White House.
Treasury yields rose on better-than-expected October employment data, while oil prices slid below $40 a barrel as new lockdowns in Europe to halt the surging COVID-19 pandemic dimmed the demand outlook.
MSCI's all-country world stock index rose 0.25% to 592.84, adding to a week-long rally in which the benchmark for global equity performance advanced almost 8% to post its best week in nearly seven months. The index also topped highs last seen in September.
In Europe, the broad pan-regional FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 0.12% to 1,418.13, while emerging market stocks rose 0.96%.
Biden expanded narrow leads over President Donald Trump in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia, but Georgia ordered a recount that could lead to a long period of uncertainty. Biden was expected to address the nation Friday evening, in what could be a victory speech.
Stocks on Wall Street rebounded from early profit-taking from the week's big gains to close little changed as a Biden presidency appeared inevitable and a sense of resignation settled in at the White House.
"It's more certain that we're going to have Biden as president and more importantly we won't have Trump as there's so much unpredictability with Trump," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.
"The unpredictability of a president makes investing in any area that he can potentially touch, like China, fraught with risk. All a sudden China is a less risky investment without Trump," Ghriskey said.
Trump vowed to continue his legal fight and said in a statement, "I will never give up fighting for you and our nation."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.24%, the S&P 500 lost 0.03% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.04%. For the week the Dow rose 6.87%, the S&P 500 7.33% and the Nasdaq 9.02%. All three posted their best weekly percentage gains since April.
But a surge in coronavirus cases, both in Europe and the United States, put a damper on the recovery outlook and investor enthusiasm that had embraced a scenario of Republicans retaining control of the Senate during a Biden administration.
"The market perhaps is starting to cheer there being some certainty to the election," said Subadra Rajappa, head of U.S. rates strategy at Societe Generale in New York.