(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock index futures slipped as investors monitored a tight race to determine who will be the next American president.
December contracts on the S&P 500 fell 0.4% at 11:39 a.m. in Tokyo. Futures declined 0.4% on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq 100 Index. Democrat Joe Biden strengthened his hold on the race for the White House, steadily chipping away at Donald Trump’s early lead in a pair of crucial swing states. Trump questioned the credibility of the election.
“We had President Donald Trump speaking this morning, bringing back some reminders of the political uncertainty that remains for the U.S.,” said Jingyi Pan, a strategist at IG Asia Pte. “Prices had also been charging strongly and look to be taking a breather ahead of resistance.”
On Thursday, the underlying S&P 500 jumped more than 1% for a fourth consecutive day, heading for the best week since April. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 surged 2.6%, pushing its advance this week to more than 9%. Federal Reserve officials kept interest rates near zero while Chair Jerome Powell opened the door to a possible shift in the central bank’s bond purchases in coming months.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.