Sharemarkets ended on a mixed note Friday. The Dow and the S&P 500 had small gains on the day, while Nasdaq fell, European markets lost, while it was a similar story for Asia, but not for Australia and Japan.
For the week, US shares up were up 0.7%, Japanese shares were up 2.8% and Australian shares ended with a gain of 0.4% thanks to Friday’s gains.
Despite the weak endings, the Dow and the S&P 500 managed to hit new all time highs on Friday after the October jobs report showed an extra 214,000 new positions were created.
It was the third day of closing record highs for the two major indexes.
Oil finished the week looking shaky, again, but gold jumped sharply on Friday after the US dollar weakened and the bulls re-emerged.
Some analysts reckoned the jobs data was underdone, but with 31,000 extra jobs added to the previous two months, more than 240,000 new jobs were announced, which is about spot on most forecasts.
The Aussie dollar ended at $86.36.
Major factors were the continuing favourable reaction to the increased stimulus out of Japan, good profit results in the US, the Republican win in the US Congress and very dovish comments from the European Central Bank about helping the struggling eurozone with more spending.
But European shares fell 1.1% and Chinese shares eased 0.1% as the government unveiled more help for the slowing economy late in the week.
Bond yields were little changed while the US dollar had another leg up and this sent most commodity prices lower (but not gold on Friday) and the Aussie dollar which fell to its lowest level since 2010.
The S&P 500 closed one point higher at a new record level of 2,031.92 and rose 0.7% over the week. Dow industrial added 19.46 points, or 0.1% to 17,573.93 and ended the week 1% higher.
But the Nasdaq Composite closed 5.94 points, or 0.1%, lower at 4,632.53 and was flat over the week.
The ASX 200 Index added 0.4% over the week, ending Friday’s trading at 5549.1 points, with all the gains coming on Friday and a bit more.
On Friday, the market added 0.8%, as Commonwealth Bank of Australia and BHP Billiton shares rose.
CBA jumped 2.8% to $82.76 over the week, having delivered a record first quarter profit. Westpac, which handed down its full-year results on Monday, rose 0.2% to $34.84.
ANZ shares fell 1.9% to $32.88, and National Australia Bank slipped 5.1% to $33.22, as both traded ex-dividend on Friday.
BHP shares rose 1.6% to $34.49 over the week, while main rival Rio Tinto added half a per cent to $60.70.
The Australian dollar lost around 2.7%, falling to its weakest level since July 2010.
Gold ended a seven-day losing streak on Friday, jumping more than 2%, but it still ended the week down 1.5%.
Comex gold for December delivery climbed $US27.20, or 2.4%, to settle at $US1,169.80 an ounce. December silver rose 30c to $US15.71 an ounce.
US light, sweet crude oil for December delivery rose 74c, or 1%, to settle at $US78.65 a barrel in New York. On the week, however, prices fell 2.4%. It was the sixth straight weekly loss.
In London, December Brent future rose 53c, or 0.6%, to $US83.39 a barrel. Over the week, Brent fell 2.9%. It was Brent’s seventh consecutive weekly decline.
