Wall Street closes its worst week since March in the final stretch of the presidential campaign

The Wall Street sign in New York.Chip East / Reuters

With the pandemic rampant in the United States and the presidential elections just around the corner, Wall Street closed its worst week since March on Friday.

The three main stock indices, the Dow Jones, the S&P, and the Nasdaq, fell more than 2% in October, their second consecutive month of losses.

Investors reacted with fear to the new record of coronavirus infections in the US: more than 90,000 cases in a single day.

This, added to the new closings in Europe, which once again slow down the economic recovery, colored the indices of concern.

The Dow Jones lost more than 6.4% this week, its worst weekly performance since the first strike of the pandemic in March.

The S&P 500 fell 5.6%, dragged down by the falls of the big technology companies, reaching levels that it had not registered for seven months.

And the Nasdaq fell 2.5% after a strong selloff in big tech stocks.

All three indices suffered losses of more than 2% in October, their second consecutive month of declines after recovering what they lost since March.

Stocks peaked in early September, but volatility has since gripped the New York Stock Exchange again.

Many investors fear the impact of new closures if the number of infections continues to rise, as seen in the record of infections and hospitalizations due to covid-19 in the Midwest of the country.

The possibility of a long vote scrutiny after next Tuesday's election also adds another factor of uncertainty to the equation.

The growth data released on Thursday, despite being positive, was not enough to revive investors.

The United States economy grew to an unprecedented level in the third quarter, with a 7.4% increase in GDP - equivalent to an annualized rate of 33.1% - according to the Commerce Department.

The rise came after huge losses during the second quarter, when GDP collapsed after the country's shutdown due to the pandemic and fell by 9%, the biggest decline since records began in 1947. GDP remains 3.5% below the pre-crisis level.

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