Stock market live Friday: Stocks decline, Nasdaq drops 2%, S&P snaps 4-week losing streak

• The S&P 500 fell 0.96% for its first negative day in three and worst day since Sept. 23
• The S&P 500 gained 1.52% this week, snapping a four-week losing streak
• The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.22% for its worst day since Sept. 23
• For the week, the Nasdaq gained 1.48% in its second straight week of gains
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 135 points for a loss of 0.48%
• The Dow finished the week 1.87% higher
• Six out of 11 S&P sectors finished higher on Friday, led by real estate, which gained 1.58%
• Real estate was also the top-performing sector for the week, gaining 4.88%. Energy was the only sector that finished the week lower. - Gina Francolla, Pippa Stevens

Stocks finished Friday's session modestly lower after hopes for further stimulus offset some of the declines following President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump's positive Covid-19 results. The Dow declined 133 points, for a loss of 0.48%, after earlier declining 433 points. The S&P 500 shed 0.96%, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 2.22%. - Pippa Stevens

With about an hour left in the trading day on Friday, the major averages were all in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 45 points and the S&P 500 slipped 0.66%. The Nasdaq Composite lost more than 1.9%, but is still set to end the week with gains. Stocks were off their lows and concerns about Trump's Covid-19 diagnosis were offset by hopes of fiscal stimulus. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told at least one Republican senator on Thursday night that an agreement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would include significant aid to state and local governments, the Washington Post reported. This marks a shift in the Trump administration's position on the issue, and many Republican lawmakers have publicly opposed that spending. — Jesse Pound

Tyler Goodspeed, acting chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told CNBC the increased number of permanent layoffs in the September jobs report demonstrates the need for additional stimulus to support the economy's coronavirus recovery. 

"Definitely, this is one of the reasons why we want a phase four agreement that would provide additional support to the economy, that would provide additional incentives for employee retention and net hiring," Goodspeed said on "The Exchange," speaking from the White House. 

Goodspeed also referenced the drop in the labor force participation rate and suggested the underlying data indicated "many of those folks" had stopped actively searching for "due to concerns about the pandemic." 

"We have now regained more than 50% of the jobs lost in those horrific months of March and April, but there is more work to be done," he added. "The remaining 48% are certainly going to be harder than the first 52%." - Kevin Stankiewicz 

Stephen Bronars, an economist at Edgeworth Analytics, cautioned against drawing strong conclusions from underlying data in Friday's jobs report, particularly from the household survey. 

"When we're looking at the household numbers, we have to realize that it's a limited sample — 60,000 households. And so there's a fairly substantial margin of error on either the monthly total or the change from one month to the next," Bronars said.

The survey showed a decline in the labor force participation rate and little change in unemployment for Black and Hispanic workers compared with August, but Bronars said that might not be a true representation of the trendlines for those metrics. 

"I think time will tell whether this is showing something slowing down or whether we need to smooth this out a little bit because of the noise in the data that really comes from a fairly limited sample size," Bronars said.

Bronars also pointed to the decline in the number of people that were working part time for economic reasons as a possible optimistic sign in the report. — Jesse Pound

Peloton and Twilio jumped to new all-time highs on Friday, while Tesla moved lower after reporting its third quarter vehicle delivery numbers. Bed Bath & Beyond built on its recent strength, and Janus Henderson and Invesco got a boost after Nelson Peltz disclosed a position. 

Read about these names and others making big moves on Friday. - Pippa Stevens

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly turned positive as the market shrugged off President Donald Trump's positive Covid-19 test to instead focus on stimulus hopes. The 30-stock average couldn't hold onto the gains, however, and quickly fell back into the red. — Pippa Stevens 

Democratic nominee Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19, NBC News reported, following President Trump's positive test. The two candidates debated on Tuesday. — Jesse Pound 

Airline stocks rose sharply after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the companies to delay their planned furloughs and lay-offs, saying that economic support from Congress was on the way.

"We will either enact Chairman DeFazio's bipartisan stand-alone legislation or achieve this as part of a comprehensive negotiated relief bill, extending for another six months the Payroll Support Program," Pelosi said in a statement.

Shares of Delta Air Lines gained 1.8%, while United and American both climbed more than 2%. — Jesse Pound

The major averages were all lower around midday on Friday as investors worried about how President Trump's positive Covid-19 diagnosis will impact the economy reopening. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 160 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.85% and 1.6%, respectively. However, stocks were off their session lows amid hopes for further stimulus. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Despite a down day on Wall Street, there were a number of stocks that bucked the trend and traded higher. The names include:

• Lennar hit a new all-time high going back to 1971 when it began trading
• Roku hit a new all-time high going back to its IPO in Sept. 2017
• Peloton Interactive rose to its highest level since going public in Sept. 2019
• Twilio traded at its  highest level on record, going back to its IPO in June 2016. — Chris Hayes, Pippa Stevens 

Tesla said Friday it delivered 139,300 vehicles in the third quarter and produced 145,036 vehicles. Analysts had expected the electric vehicle company to deliver 137,000 vehicles during the quarter, according to estimates compiled by FactSet.

Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales numbers reported by Tesla. Shares of the Elon Musk-led company were about 2.4% lower during early trading. - Lora Kolodny, Pippa Stevens

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Friday downplayed the market decline on the overnight announcement that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for Covid-19. "I'm not saying this is much to do about nothing," Cramer said. "I am saying that people should have a buy list ready." Cramer said he hopes the president's coronavirus infection convinces more Americans to wear masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which could have benefits for the U.S. economy. — Kevin Stankiewicz

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during an interview with MSNBC that she was optimistic about striking an agreement on a new stimulus deal after President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19, but said that the differences between the two sides were about more than just money. 

"This kind of changes the dynamic because here they see the reality of what we have been saying all along. This is a vicious virus ... I'm optimistic. I'm always optimistic. We always have to find a path. That is our responsibility to do so. And I believe that we will," Pelosi said. — Jesse Pound

Stocks fell on Friday after President Donald Trump and First Lady Melanie Trump testing positive for Covid-19 injected uncertainty into the market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 409 points, for a loss of 1.47%. The S&P 500 declined 1.55%, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 2%. - Pippa Stevens

Treasurys strengthened slightly after nonfarm payrolls came in lighter than expected, in part because of a big decline in state and local education jobs.

"Overall it shows a continued clawback from the large depths we fell into, and we're halfway back," said John Briggs, head of strategy at NatWest. The 10-year yield edged lower to 0.65% from 0.66%. Yields move opposite to price.

Yields were steady to lower earlier, as the market reacted to the news that President Donald Trump and the First Lady tested positive for Covid.

Total nonfarm payrolls rose by 661,000 in September, well below the 800,000 expected. Some economists had expected an upside surprise of 1 million or more. 

Government employment declined by 216,000 in September. There were 280,000 jobs lost in state and local education. "The recovery is slowing, and I think it's to the point that you've had a lot of high profile layoffs this week. It doesn't convince me that things are going to be great. It's still a recovery. We're right back to watching what risk does and we're watching what goings on in Washington with Covid and stimulus," Briggs said. — Patti Domm

President Trump being diagnosed with Covid-19 is not a major negative event for the market, according to some Wall Street analysts including Sevens Report Founder Tom Essaye.

"Washington has impacted markets because of stimulus expectations and the election, and this news does not materially change the outlook for either. As such, despite some short term volatility, we do not see Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis as a materially bearish event," Essaye said. 

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more analysis here. — Jesse Pound

• Loop initiated Shake Shack as buy.
• Susquehanna upgraded J.B. Hunt to positive from neutral.
• Bank of America upgraded American Eagle to neutral from underperform.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Six Flags to neutral from sell.
• Evercore ISI upgraded Splunk to outperform from in-line.
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Carvana to equal weight from underweight.
• Bernstein initiated Snowflake as market perform.
• Wedbush removed Nvidia from its best ideas list.
• JPMorgan raised its price target on Disney to $155 from $135.

Pro Subscribers can read more here.- Michael Bloom

Nonfarm payroll rose by a lower-than-expected 661,000 in September and the unemployment rate was 7.9%, the Labor Department said Friday in the final jobs report before the November election.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a payrolls gain of 800,000 and the unemployment rate to fall to 8.2% from 8.4% in August.

The decline in the unemployment rate came along with a 0.3 percentage point drop in the labor force participation rate to 61.4%, representing a decline of nearly 700,000. However, a separate, more encompassing measure that counts discouraged workers and those working part-time for economic reasons also saw a notable decline, falling from 14.2% to 12.8%. - Jeff Cox, Nate Rattner

"The news of President Trump contracting COVID-19 may completely change the direction of the campaign and adds to our already cautious outlook on the stock market," said James McDonald, CEO of Los Angeles-based Hercules Investments. "President Trump contracting the coronavirus will elevate institutional money's preparation for a Democratic White House and all the tax, trade and budget implications that go along with it. We expect institutional investors to start de-risking portfolios and increasing hedges in preparation for market volatility."

That said, McDonald noted that he is not changing his strategy. "We have been long volatility due to market overvaluation, the absence of fiscal relief from coronavirus-triggered economic pressure and uncertainty heading into the U.S. presidential election," he noted. - Pippa Stevens

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate declined to 7.9% in September, but at least some of that drop was for bearish reasons. The labor force participation rate, which measures the people working or actively looking for work, declined by 0.3 percentage points to 61.4%. The metric was 63.4% in February before the pandemic. — Jesse Pound

The Labor Department said Friday that 661,000 jobs were added in September. The number is smaller than the 800,000 increase expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. - Pippa Stevens 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has tested negative for the coronavirus, according to the Treasury's assistant secretary for public affairs. In a tweet Monica Crowley said that Mnuchin is tested daily. - Pippa Stevens

Thomas Block, Fundstrat's Washington policy analyst, said on "Squawk Box" that President Trump contracting Covid-19 could be a "wake-up call" that the virus is not going away and more stimulus is needed. Pro subscribers can watch the full interview here. — Jesse Pound

Activist investment firm Trian Fund Management has built a 9.9% stake in Invesco and Janus Henderson, according to securities filings. Shares of the two asset management firms rose 5.7% and 6.7%, respectively, in premarket trading. Trian is led by activist investor Nelson Peltz. — Jesse Pound

The Cboe Volatility Index — a measure of investor fear —rose on Friday following news that President Trump tested positive for Covid-19. The index is sitting around the 29.5 level, up from Thursday night's level of around 26. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence have both tested negative for the coronavirus, Pence's spokesman said Friday, hours after President Donald Trump announced he and the first lady tested positive.— Kevin Breuninger

Shares of major U.S. airlines and cruise operators dropped on Friday as President Trump's positive Covid-19 diagnosis raised concerns about a coronavirus second wave and slower reopening of the economy. 

Shares of United Airlines fell more than 4.5% in premarket trading on Friday. Shares of American Airlines and Delta Airlines lost 3.9% and 3.8%, respectively. Southwest Airlines dropped nearly 4% and Alaska Air Group fell 2.5%. 

Cruise operators also weakened Friday morning with Carnival and Norwegian losing 5% each and Royal Caribbean dropping more than 4%. Brick and mortar retailers also fell in premarket trading on Friday. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

The final nonfarm payrolls report before the November election will be released Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, with economists expecting a deceleration from previous months. Job creation likely increased by 800,000, according to Dow Jones, while the unemployment rate is expected to tick lower to 8.2%. That would represent a decrease from the nearly 1.4 million jobs in August, but still the highest pre-coronavirus monthly gain since September 1983. — Jeff Cox

Jamie Cox, Managing Partner for Harris Financial Group, said while President Donald Trump's coronavirus diagnosis sparked an initial risk-off move in markets, the news could be the catalyst to break the stalemate in Washington on the further coronavirus stimulus.

"Initial market reactions to the news that President Trump tested positive for COVID19 are as expected-negative," Cox said. "However, markets could have some unexpected reactions as this could break the log jam in current stimulus negotiations." — Yun Li

President Donald Trump's tweet at 12:54 a.m. ET announcing the Covid-19 diagnosis initially sent Dow futures tumbling about 500 points in overnight trading, and the contracts were off their worst levels as investors digested the news. — Yun Li

Futures tied to major U.S. equity benchmarks fell in morning trading after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus. The news added more uncertainty to the presidential election and raised fears about a second wave of the coronavirus.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost about 400 points, indicating an opening loss of 410 points. S&P 500 futures fell 1.6%. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 2.2%. Stocks sensitive to a successful economic reopening led the declines in premarket. Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line fell 5% each. American Airlines and United Airlines both lost more than 4%. — Yun Li