The US stock market closed higher for the week with small-cap stocks outperforming. Dow Jones turned again positive for this year. The S&P 500 Index had its best weekly gain in three months, and long-term government yields rose to a four-month high. What drove the investor's sentiment was mainly optimism about a new round of fiscal stimulus and news about treatments for the coronavirus. The latter confirms the Fed’s statement that economic recovery is dependent on the coronavirus crisis.

Economic News

A rather thin economic calendar for the previous week showed that the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI exceeded consensus expectations. The actual number reported was 57.8, better than the forecast of 56.3, showing that the non-manufacturing economy in that index is expanding. This was the fourth consecutive month that the index was above the 50.0 level, the level that indicates expansion or not. Also, the ISM Non-Manufacturing Business Activity came in at 63.0, beating the estimate of 61.0 indicating a strong non-manufacturing economy. The FOMC minutes expressed the need for a combined fiscal and stimulus support to the US economy, for better and faster economic recovery.

The labor market news was mixed with JOLTs Job Openings coming in at 6.493M, less than the forecast of 6.685M, Continuing Jobless Claims at 10976K better than the estimate of 11400K and Initial Jobless Claims at 840K, worse than the forecast of 820K.

For the week of October 5– October 9, 2020, the major US stock market indexes closed as follows on Friday, October 9, 2020:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Close 28586.90, +3.27% for the week, +0.17% Year-to-date

• S&P 500 Index: Close 3477.13 , +3.84% for the week, +7.63% Year-to-date

• Nasdaq Composite: Close 11579.94 , +4.56% for the week, +29.06%, Year-to-date

• Russell 2000: Close 1637.55, +6.38% for the week, -1.85% Year-to-date

Weekly Stocks Gainers

These are the top 2 gainers, strictly percentage-wise - stocks with 5 days of consecutive price advances:

1. Agex Therapeutics Inc (NYSEARCA:AGE), Close 2.56, 5-day change +218.01%

3. Precigen Inc (ΝASDAQ: PGEN), Close 5.69, 5-day change +51.73%

Weekly Stocks Losers

These are the top 3 losers, by percentage - stocks with 5 days of consecutive price declines:

1. Shiftpixy Inc (NASDAQ:PIXY) , Close 2.79, 5-day change -24.39%

2. Draftkings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG) , Close 48.82, 5-day change -23.46%

3. Akouos Inc (NASDAQ:AKUS), Close 17.03, 5-day change -20.20%

Economic events for the week October 12-16, 2020:

Important economic data for the week will the Inflation Rate, the Weekly Jobless Claims, the Retail  Sales, the Industrial Production, and the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Preliminary.

Sources:

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/stocks/us/indexes

https://www.barchart.com

https://www.fxstreet.com/economic-calendar