NEW YORK, New York - Fresh selling in airline stocks, an announcement by Apple that it is closing stores in North and South Carolina, Arizona and Florida, concerns about spikes of coronavirus cases in almost half the U.S. states, and caution advised by the Federal Reserve kept buyers at bay on Wall Street on Friday.
"You've got these dueling forces with Fed stimulus and the consumer spending again on one side, and on the other side the resurgence of COVID-19 in pockets of areas around the globe," Matthew Keator, managing partner in the Keator Group, a wealth management firm in Lenox, Massachusetts told the Reuters Thomson news agency on Friday.
"Apple is the canary in the coalmine with respect to other businesses," Keator said. "You'll start to see other businesses do similar things in some of the states where we're seeing the virus reemerge."
"But there's also a feeling that the Fed is acutely aware of what's going and will help where and when needed."
At the close of trading Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 208.64 points, or 0.80%, at 25,871.46.
The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 17.53 points, or 0.56%, to 3,097.81.
The Nasdaq Composite ended slightly higher, rising 3.07 points, or 0.03%, to 9,946.12.
The U.S. dollar was on a tear Friday with all the major currencies being sold off. The euro tumbled to 1.1176 by the New York close Friday. The British pound did worse, falling to 1.2348. The Swiss franc fell to 0.9523.
The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.3607. The Australian dollar dived to 0.6835. The New Zealand dollar was sharply lower at 0.6406.
Only the Japanese yen held up, rising a few points to 106.87 Friday.
On equity markets overseas, in Europe the German Dax rose 0.40%. In Paris, the CAC 40 climbed 0.42%. London's FTSE 100 did best Friday, adding 1.10%.
On Asian markets , in Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 123.33 points or 0.55% to 22,478.79.
China's Shanghai Composite advanced 28.32 points or 0.96% to 2,967.63.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng gained 178.95 points or 0.73% to 24,643.39.
The Australian All Ordinaries on Friday edged up 9.70 points or 0.16% to 6,061.60.
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