Another volatile session on Wall Street on Friday night AEDT (28 December) to cap what was one of the wildest weeks for US equity markets in recent years amid holiday thinned trade - Dow settled -76-points or -0.33% lower, unwinding an earlier +243-point rally. The broader S&P500 dipped -0.12% after gaining as much as +1.26% earlier in the session, with Energy (down -0.89%) leading the sector losses. Consumer Discretionary (up +0.30%) was the leading sector. The NASDAQ inched +0.08% higher, but closed well shy of its session high. In the background, the partial government shutdown continues as President Trump has refused to sign a short-term budget extension unless his demands for border wall funding are met. Upping the ante, President Trump threatened to close the border between US and Mexico in the seventh day of the shutdown. For the week, the Dow rose +3.09%, S&P500 +2.86% and the Nasdaq +3.97%. The recent moves in equities put the Dow and S&P 500 on track for their first yearly loss since 2015. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, was is on pace to log its first yearly decline since 2011. US equity markets are CLOSED on Tuesday night AEDT (1 January).
