Wall Street equities post mixed weekly results

NEW YORK: Wall Street's major averages posted mixed results in the week as investors digested the US Federal Reserve's latest policy statement and a slew of grim economic data.

For the week ending Friday, the Dow lost 0.2 per cent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained 1.7 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

The S&P US Listed China 50 index, which is designed to track the performance of the 50 largest Chinese companies listed on US exchanges by total market cap, logged a weekly rise of 3 per cent.

"As we wait for a vaccine and for the market to fully recover, many investors will have to brace themselves for continued volatility," analysts at Zacks Investment Management said in a note on Saturday.

"Market volatility is challenging for just about every investor, especially with all the unknowns that come with the current pandemic," they added. Wall Street eyed the Federal Reserve's latest economic assessment and its interest rate decision.

The US central bank on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record-low level of near zero amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases nationwide.

"The ongoing public health crisis will weigh heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term," the Fed said in a statement after concluding a two-day policy meeting, adding it decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0-0.25 per cent. The Fed slashed interest rates to near zero earlier this year in an effort to support the economy amid the pandemic shock. As of Saturday afternoon, the United States has reported more than 4.5 million COVID-19 cases and over 153,000 deaths — both figures the highest worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has suffered its worst economic decline on record as the economy contracted at an annual rate of 32.9 per cent in the second quarter of the year, amid mounting COVID-19 fallout, the US Commerce Department reported Thursday. (IANS) 

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