FILE - This Jan. 4, 2010 file photo shows an entrance to a Wall Street subway station in New York. Shares fell Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Europe and Asia as nervous investors fretted over the potential outcome of next week's nail-bitingly close U.S. presidential election. Investors also were awaiting the release of U.S. employment data. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - This Jan. 4, 2010 file photo shows an entrance to a Wall Street subway station in New York. Shares fell Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Europe and Asia as nervous investors fretted over the potential outcome of next week's nail-bitingly close U.S. presidential election. Investors also were awaiting the release of U.S. employment data. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Credit: Mark Lennihan

New York — The slow, steady retreat of the stock market ahead of the 2016 election continued Friday, with the market falling for a ninth day. Wall Street is now in its longest period of decline in more than three decades.

Investors continue to focus on the presidential election, which has become too close for comfort for some investors and has put the market on the defensive.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 42.39 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,888.28. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 3.48 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,085.18 and the Nasdaq composite lost 12.04 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,046.37. The last time the S&P 500 fell for nine straight days is December 1980, nearly 36 years ago. Ronald Reagan wasn’t even president yet.

However the total decline has been relatively minor, comparatively speaking. The S&P 500 fell 9.4 percent during the 1980 nine-day losing streak, according to Howard Silverblatt at S&P Global Market Intelligence, compared with the 3.1 percent decline in this sell-off.

Investors point to one reason for the drop: Donald Trump.

With only a few days left until the election, Hillary Clinton is still leading in national polling but Trump appears to have considerably narrowed the gap, particularly in swing states. Investors like certainty, and Clinton is seen as likely to maintain the status quo. Trump’s policies are less clear, and the uncertainty and uncomfortable closeness of the polls has caused jitters in financial markets.

“Some investors are afraid of Donald Trump becoming president,” said Michael Scanlon, a portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management.

Other portfolio managers and market strategists have made similar comments, saying that it is likely a drop would continue on Wall Street if Trump were to prevail, at least in the short term. The VIX, a measure of volatility nicknamed Wall Street’s “fear gauge” because it allows investors to bet on how much the stock market will swing in the next 30 days, surged 40 percent last week. It is at its highest level since June, when Britain voted to leave the European Union.

“No one really knows what Trump would do should he get into power, probably not even himself,” said Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG. “It is that uncertainty that is driving the market negativity that has dominated this week.”

U.S. employers added a solid 161,000 jobs in October and raised pay sharply for many workers. The Labor Department’s monthly employment report Friday sketched a picture of a resilient job market. The unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent from 5 percent. And average hourly pay took a big step up, rising 10 cents an hour to an average of $25.92. That is 2.8 percent higher than a year ago and is the sharpest 12-month rise in seven years.

“This is really good for the U.S. consumer, especially as we head into the critical holiday shopping season,” Scanlon said.

The October jobs report is likely to give the Federal Reserve enough ammunition to raise interest rates at its December meeting, economists said. Fed policymakers ended a two-day meeting on Wednesday where they decided to hold rates steady.

“It seems that the only remaining obstacle to the Fed hiking in December would be a significant adverse financial market reaction to the U.S. presidential election,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.