New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ignored the poor US employment figures and closed a record breaking first week of 2021 on Friday, filled with political events and promises.

According to final results, the index of flagship stocks Dow Jones gained 0.18% to 31,097.97 points, a new record after that of the day before.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.03% to 13.201.98 points, a new high.

The broader S&P 500 Index, gaining 0.55%, also posted a higher level.

Over the week, the indices advanced 1.61% for the DJIA, 2.43% for the Nasdaq and 1.82% for the S&P 500.

"The clarity on the political front has maintained a positive trend 'in the market' despite worrying violence on Capitol Hill earlier in the week," Schwab analysts said.

On Wednesday, the election of Democrat Joe Biden was validated by Congress now fully controlled by his party after a double senatorial election in Georgia.

But a host of pro-Trump supporters created a shock by violently invading Congress, incidents that left five people dead.

In a volatile Friday morning session, Wall Street digested the unexpected drop in US jobs for December.

The US economy lost jobs last month for the first time since April, hit hard by the upsurge in Covid-19 cases and measures to restrict activity.

In December, 140,000 jobs were lost, much worse than expected by analysts who expected 112,000 jobs to be created.

The unemployment rate remained stable compared to November, at 6.7% in line with expectations, with 10.7 million unemployed.

"This employment report for December was disappointing, but it probably reinforces the expectations of further fiscal stimulus from the new administration," said Schwab.

-New aid package on the horizon -

All the more so since President-elect Joe Biden announced in the afternoon that he would lay the foundations for the next economic aid package next week.

"Tens of billions of dollars" are needed to allow local and state authorities to maintain jobs, said the Democrat, who was presenting the last key members of his economic team from his stronghold in Wilmington, Delaware.

Medium-term market optimism was shared by several economists.

"The very gloomy employment figures are a bad deal for 2021, but the recovery of the labor market should strengthen in spring and summer with vaccinations which will gradually improve the health situation," assured Lydia Boussour, economist for Oxford Economics.

She predicts that the economy will recreate 6 million jobs by the summer.

On the stock side, Boeing dropped 1.32% after being fined $ 2.5 billion for deceiving authorities during the 737 MAX approval process.

The share of the American telecommunications company Acacia Communications climbed 9.87% after abandoning its merger with Cisco (+ 0.22%).

But the star of the market was again Tesla stock, which after having crossed for the first time the mark of 800 dollars per unit Thursday, approached the next day the threshold of 900 dollars: the title of the car manufacturer High-end electrics finished at $ 880.02, aligning their eleventh straight increase (+ 7.84%).

This exponential trajectory hoisted Thursday his boss Elon Musk to the rank of the richest man in the world, ahead of Jeff Bezos.

Tesla's capitalization, which now weighs $ 834 billion, has supplanted that of Facebook.

Yields on 10-year Treasuries continued to rise to 1.1136% from 1.0795% the previous day, the highest since mid-March as the greenback rallied.

© 2021 AFP