US equity indexes closed higher this week following a decisive outcome in the presidential elections and as the Federal Reserve continued to ease monetary policy.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 43,988.99 on Friday, compared with 42,052.19 a week ago. The S&P 500 stood at 5995.54 end-of-play, compared with 5,728.80 a week earlier. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 18,286.78 versus 18,239.92 the week prior.
* Industrials, consumer cyclicals, and technology were top gainers, with all sectors gaining as investors removed US presidential election risk from their 2024 playbook.
* The US Dollar Index jumped to 104.94 late on Friday, from around 103.43 on Tuesday afternoon, after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump beat his Democratic counterpart Kamala Harris.
* "Market players are betting a Trump victory and Republican control of the Senate will result in policies benefiting economic growth including tax cuts, investment in domestic energy production, and deregulation," Stifel Chief Economist Lindsey Piegza said in a note this week. As of late Friday, the counting of ballots continued to determine the control of the House of Representatives.
* "Ongoing labor market softening suggests [US] monetary policy is restrictive at current levels and we think a Republican clean sweep in the US elections - resulting in greater inflationary pressures - would simply push [Federal Reserve] rate cuts further into the future rather than halting them altogether," Ryan Field, Global Macro Strategist at Oxford Economics, said in a note late last month.
* On Thursday, the Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.5% to 4.75%. According to the FedWatch Tool late Friday, the probability of another reduction of the same magnitude in December is 65%.
* The US two-year Treasury yield traded at around 4.25% near the close on Friday, higher than a week ago, reflecting partly the inflation-related concerns in the government bond market.
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