Wall Street close: Benchmarks bleed-out ahead of key events

• Nasdaq Composite Index lost 18 points, or 0.2%, at 8,637.
• The S&P 500 index dropped five points to trade at 3,140.
• DJIA gave back some 68 points, or 0.2%, at 27,947.

The mood on Wall Street started to sour a touch in the US afternoon leading to lower benchmarks, albeit all three being within 0.8% of their closing highs.

Trade, US and Chinese data, UK elections as well as central banks are all in focus this week making for plenty of risk and uncertainty. Subsequently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA gave back some 68 points, or 0.2%, at 27,947, while the S&P 500 index dropped five points to trade at 3,140 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 18 points, or 0.2%, at 8,637.

US vs Chinese data surprises

Casting minds back, the US Nonfam Payrolls report showed that American firms added 266,000 new positions in November, a much higher outcome than the 180,000 forecasts. We also had revisions to the September and October which came in at 41,000.

While Friday's US data was the catalyst for strong closes, China's trade data from the weekend sparked up fears of a global recession yet again and weighed on risk sentiment ahead of this week's tariff deadline on the 15th December – An additional 15% of import duties on $156 billion of annual consumer imports are scheduled to take effect. There were news today that China has already started to make preparations for it. The trade data showed that exports to the U.S had fallen 23% year-over-year in November. More broadly, exports to all countries fell 1.1% year-over-year.

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DJIA levels