Stocks look to avoid longest skid since 1980

 Adam Shell , USA TODAY12:57 p.m. EDT November 4, 2016

U.S. stocks moved slightly higher early Friday. The economy added 161,000 jobs during the month, missing forecasts of 178,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.9%. Newslook

(Photo: Spencer Platt)

The S&P 500 was trading higher Friday as the benchmark stock index looks to avoid its first 9-session losing streak in 36 years and traders react to a report showing steady job growth in October and brace for the coming presidential election.

In early afternoon trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index was up 8 points, or 0.4%. The index is riding an eight-session losing streak, its longest since 2008, and is in jeopardy of falling for a ninth day -- a streak of futility that last occurred in December 1980, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. In December 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan was celebrating his presidential election win a month earlier over Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 40 points, or 0.2%. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.5%.

The big news of the day so far was the October jobs report. The government reported that 161,000 jobs were created last month, shy of the 175,000 economists had forecast, although job gains in August and September were revised up a combined 44,000. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.9%, down from 5%. But the key data point was the 10 cent jump in average hourly wages and a year-over-year pay gain of 2.8% -- the best reading since the Great Recession.

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The solid if unspectacular job growth last month is not expected to derail the Federal Reserve's plans to hike interest rates for the first time this year when they meet at their December meeting, analysts and money managers say.

Says Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America: "This is not a bad number; it's not a big miss. The whole report says the Fed is on track for a December rate hike and there is nothing in this jobs report to derail them."

Stocks, however, have been dragged down over the past weeks amid signs the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is narrowing, which is creating a big bout of uncertainty and making investors jittery.

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JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade, says the stock market's recent jitters is election-related.

"Volatility has returned to the market," Kinahan told USA TODAY. "People have woken up to the fact that this election can go either way. The market is starting to tell us that the race for the White House has tightened."

Today's jobs report is not expected to shift the market's focus off of Election Day on Tuesday, adds Sean Lynch, co-head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Stocks around the world were also down on U.S. election jitters. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.3% and stocks suffered small loses in Hong Kong and mainland China. In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was off 0.8%.

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