Wall Street ended September and the quarter higher on the day, lower on the month, but with solid gains for the three months and will look to try and start afresh today.
Hopes for a new stimulus package from Congress before the elections offset fears about the continuing rise in COVID-19 cases and the unease at the rancorous first presidential debate which saw President trump attempt to hector and bully challenger Joe Biden.
US voters turned off with the fall from the first 2016 debate down by more than a quarter, according to Nielsen ratings data.
The Dow rose 329.04 points, or 1.2%, to end September at 27,781.70, while the S&P 500 index added 27.53 points, 0.8%, to end at 3,363. The Nasdaq rose 0.7%, or 82.26 points higher, to end at 11,167.51.
For the month, the Dow fell 2.3%, the S&P 500 lost 3.9% and the Nasdaq Composite ended off 5.2%, marking the first monthly decline for each benchmark since March.
On a quarterly basis, the Dow advanced 7.6%, the S&P 500 rose 8.5% and the Nasdaq Composite surged 11% thanks to big gains in July and August.
Marketwatch.com pointed out that the last time any of those main benchmarks posted as ugly a September performance was 2011, during the European sovereign debt crisis and the downgrade of America’s pristine triple-A credit rating by Standard & Poor’s.
