Driven by tech, Wall Street ends up; more moderate tone at the Fed


Operators of the New York Stock Exchange (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/SPENCER PLATT)

The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher on Friday after several lackluster sessions, buoyed by technology and a more dovish tone on interest rates from some Fed members.

The Dow Jones index, which accelerated in late trading, advanced 1.00% to 33,375.49 points, the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.66% to 11,140.43 points and the S&P 500 1 .89% to 3,972.61 points.

Netflix’s strong subscriber numbers last quarter and further staff cuts in the tech sector, with Google’s latest announcement that it will cut 12,000 jobs, gave the Nasdaq a boost.

“After several sessions of generally lackluster market, investors feel that most of the bad news has passed and stocks were oversold,” particularly in technology, said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital.

Thus Alphabet, the parent company of Google, was the latest group to announce layoffs on Friday after Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Salesforce and Twitter among others.

Some 12,000 jobs, or 6% of Google’s workforce, will be cut worldwide.

Investors hailed the cost cuts, sending Alphabet’s stock up 5.72% to $99.28.

“Tech stalwarts have been hiring at a pace that was unsustainable and the deteriorating macro environment is now forcing them to lay off,” commented Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

The day before, after the market closed, streaming leader Netflix announced a sharp rebound in the number of its subscribers, which increased by 7.6 million in the last quarter alone, much more than Wall Street had expected.

Netflix stock soared 8.46% to $342.50.

In addition, the group also seems to be entering a new era with the withdrawal of its founder Reed Hastings, who gives up his place as co-CEO to become “executive chairman”.

Among the big names on the Nasdaq, Microsoft and Amazon gained more than 3%, Apple almost 2%.

But tech news aside, the market was relieved by a more dovish tone from members of the U.S. Central Bank (Fed) Monetary Committee as the next policy meeting nears. money on February 1.

Until then, Fed members are entering the week of silence before the meeting.

On Friday, one of the governors of the Federal Reserve, Christopher Jan Waller, spoke out in favor of a quarter-point increase in key rates at the next meeting of the monetary policy committee. At the previous meeting, the Fed had raised the cost of credit by 50 basis points.

Given the “excellent news” of the slowdown in inflation, “it seems to me that it is now time to slow down (…) the pace” of rate hikes, he added.

Investors welcomed “this moderation in the tone of Fed officials”, commented for AFP Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management. “Looks like this is going to be the new tempo” for rate hikes, the analyst added.

For Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital too, this new tone was also “good news”.

All the more so, according to him, since the composition of the monetary committee for 2023 “will be more dove”, that is to say leaning towards a more accommodating monetary policy, with the rotation of the voting members within it.

On the side, the action of online furniture seller Wayfair was praised (+20.25% to 46.79 dollars). The group, very prosperous in the United States during the pandemic, announced that it was going to get rid of 10% of its staff, or 1,750 jobs.

The title of Goldman Sachs dropped 2.54% while the regulatory authorities (Fed) have begun an investigation to determine whether the bank has managed the development of its activities aimed at individuals, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The title of the Coinbase cryptocurrency trading platform regained strength (+11.61% to 55.16 dollars) after two sessions of heavy losses. Bitcoin was up 6.66% at $22,335 around 9:30 p.m. GMT.

The Eli Lilly laboratory was sanctioned (-1.43%) after an accelerated authorization request made to the American drug regulatory agency was rejected by the FDA.

On the bond market, yields on 10-year Treasury bills stretched to 3.47% against 3.39% the day before.

© 2023 AFP

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