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Market Recap: Wednesday, September 30

Stocks rose Wednesday as investors digested a raucous first presidential debate and continued to eye developments among congressional lawmakers for further fiscal stimulus. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated during a conference presented by CNBC on Wednesday, that lawmakers were looking to give passing a stimulus bill in the near-term a “serious try.” The Final Round panel breaks down the details.

Video Transcript

[BELL RINGING]

[HAMMERING GAVEL]

SEANA SMITH: Taking a look at where we ended the month and the quarter, the Dow, though for today at least, holding on to gains up just around 350 points as we shake out the final closing numbers. S&P up nearly 1%, and the NASDAQ, of the three major averages, was the underperformer today, closing up just around 0.8%. For the month, though, it was a little bit of a different story of reporting our first monthly decline since March. Stocks coming under a little bit of pressure as investors second guess some of the valuations when it comes to those big tech names, also just the ongoing uncertainty and the risks out there in the market when we talk about the fact that we still don't have a stimulus deal out of Washington and then, of course, the uncertainty surrounding the elections.

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Speaking of that, no stimulus deal out of Washington. That was one of the things that weighed on the markets at midday today. We were up over 500 points, cut those losses in about half, regained some of those losses in the last 30 minutes or so of trading, but again, closing well off the highs of the day. S&P and NASDAQ up nearly 1%.

In terms of some of the more bullish side of things for today, we got stronger than expected economic data out this morning. That helped boost investor sentiment a little bit. First reading on jobs, ADP report private sector jobs growing by 749,000, topping expectations. Pending home sales soaring just up nearly 8%, up 8.8% in the month of August. The highest pace on record. In terms of where we stand on a quarterly basis, we're going to go through this. NASDAQ and S&P reporting their best third quarter since 2010.

The Dow having its best third quarter since 2018, so in two years. Dow, S&P and NASDAQ, their worst September since 2011. We mentioned some of the losses that we've seen over the last 30 days. And of course, we had the Dow and NASDAQ snapping their five month winning streak. I want to bring in my co-host for the next 60 minutes, Myles Udland. He's still with us. And Myles, as we shake out the closing today, of course, also the closing for the month, the closing for the quarter, what stands out to you and the action that we've seen over the last couple of weeks?

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, well, I think, you know, I was just chatting Jared right at the end of the last hour, and, you know, he sort of outlined what I think is now coming into focus as the clearest and most obvious thesis for how we had the September that we had, which is the market finally, after years and years of talking about it, beginning to really price in what could or could not happen as we get towards the 2020 election. We are now less than five weeks away from Election Day here in the US, and it seems likely, though, you know, of course, it doesn't have to play out this way, but it seems likely that we will see markets do a lot of this, a lot of chopping, a lot of overreacting, perhaps, to what happens in a debate or in a speech or some sort of news report or if there's going to be fiscal stimulus, because it's going to be very difficult, I think, for, you know, the market to decide a coherent and sustained direction without some kind of clarity on who the next president is, and that doesn't necessarily mean because of, you know, what the market does when, you know, a Republican is the president or a Democrats president.

[? We don't need ?] to go through all of that. Stocks tend to go up over time. It's just that when you have a lack of clarity about who is going to sit in the White House, it is hard to kind of play any theme other than, well, I don't really know what to do. And so I think that this is sort of going to be the big story in markets over the next five weeks. Even as we get earnings season roll in, we'll have individual company moves, but I think it would be surprising to see the S&P say fall 9% from here or rise 9% from here. We're probably going to be very technically driven market as we've been, and that has been really the way the markets acted with the exception of a few pockets of time for the last six months, you know, kind of as we begin that recovery. And so I think that is, again, what price and what the market is suggesting is most likely over the coming weeks.