New York (AFP)

Wall Street ended lower on Friday, pulled down by tech stocks, after the news of President Donald Trump's Covid-19 contamination just one month away from the US presidential elections.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), fell 0.48% to 27,682.81 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, dropped 2.22% to 11,075.01 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, lost 0.96% to 3,348.49 points.

On Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange had finished modestly in the green, the DJIA having gleaned 0.13%.

The Nasdaq advanced 1.42% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.53%.

The tenant of the White House announced on the night of Thursday to Friday, in a tweet, that he had tested positive for Covid-19 just like his wife Melania, and that he was quarantining himself at the White House.

The indices limited their losses at mid-session but the technology and communications sectors led the descent.

They closed down 2.55% and 1.99% respectively.

The VIX, dubbed the fear index, which measures the volatility of the New York Stock Exchange, climbed 3.45%, suggesting brokers and investors were more worried than the day before.

“Tech stocks have seen an incredible surge until the last few weeks, so they're the ones that have come under the most pressure,” said Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management.

Major tech stocks plunged like Apple (-3.23%), Microsoft (-2.95%), Amazon (-2.99%) and Intel (-2.35%).

"But overall, I find the losses to be fairly contained given the uncertainties surrounding the elections and now the fact that the president has contracted the virus," said Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management.

He recalled that the one-year Nasdaq was still up more than 20%, the S&P up more than 3% and the Dow Jones down just 3%.

The mere fact that the president is isolating himself "adds to the uncertainty in the presidential race next month," noted Fawad Razaqzada of ThinkMarkets.com.

And "the markets usually don't like uncertainty."

In addition, investors digested on Friday mixed employment figures, with an unemployment rate admittedly down to 7.9% for September but job creation slowed.

The US economy created far fewer jobs last month than analysts expected with 661,000 new jobs.

"The employment figures were a bit worrying," said the Ventura Wealth analyst.

"And unless we get a stimulus from Washington, I think it's going to be difficult for the stock market and for the economy," he said.

As for the discussions between the White House and the Democratic opposition on a new long-awaited economic support plan, things were not progressing much.

"Our negotiations with the administration are continuing and I hope we can reach an agreement. However, we still have significant disagreements in key areas," said Democratic leader in Congress Nancy Pelosi.

But she still urged airlines to suspend their layoffs indicating that aid to the sector would be voted one way or another.

The titles of American companies ended up: American Airlines (+ 3.34%) and United Airlines (+ 2.36%).

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose to 0.6907% from 0.6774% Thursday night.

© 2020 AFP