The floor of the New York Stock Exchange (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
The New York Stock Exchange concluded in dispersed order, close to equilibrium, a calm session with sparse trading, Wall Street being the only Western stock market open for Easter Monday.
The Dow Jones index climbed 0.30% to 33,586.52 points, the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.03% to 12,084.36 points and the broader S&P 500 index advanced 0.10% to 4,109.11 points.
“The session was very calm and the exchanges light, roughly speaking we were the only ones open,” summed up Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 largely recouped the ground they lost in early trading, reacting to weaker but still strong U.S. labor market data released on Friday when Wall Street was closed for Good Friday. .
“Finally the good news from this jobs report is that wages have only increased modestly”, by 4.2% over one year, their weakest increase since June 2021. “It’s a good sign, this means that we are going in the right direction” regarding inflation, added Mr. Cardillo.
However, continued the analyst, “due to the publication of an inflation index on Wednesday, investors remained cautious”.
On Wednesday, the markets will have their eyes fixed on the consumer price index (CPI) in the United States, but also on the minutes of the last Fed meeting.
Analysts expect inflation to ease to 5.1% year on year, the lowest in almost two years, from 6% year on year in February, according to forecasts from Wells Fargo bank.
“Investors are a bit on the mode + we are waiting to see +”, summarized for AFP, Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
On the stock side, the big names in technology have suffered. Apple dropped 1.60% to 162 dollars, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, lost 1.79% to 106.95 dollars.
The semiconductor sector, on the other hand, had a good session. Micron Technology soared 8% after news that rival Samsung would moderate chip production to reduce inventory levels.
AMD gained 3.26%, Nvidia, losing at the start of the session, rebounded 2%.
Tesla, which plunged more than 4% at the opening after announcing a new price cut for its electric vehicles, raised the bar to no longer yield only 0.30%.
Some analysts considered that this price reduction, the fifth of the year for the manufacturer, was a good way to gain market share.
Among the major banks set to release their results on Friday, JPMorgan Chase rose 0.33%, Wells Fargo 1.93% and Citigroup 1.44%.
The shale gas specialist Pioneer Natural Resources climbed 5.79% to 220 dollars while the oil group Exxon Mobil (-0.44%) is in discussion for its takeover, according to information from the Wall Street Journal.
In the bond market, yields on ten-year Treasury bills climbed to 3.41% from 3.39% at the last close.
Oil prices fell after three weekly increases while the London market remained closed for Easter Monday.
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in June fell 1.10% to 84.18 dollars.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in May, fell 1.18% to 79.74 dollars.
The price of crude oil was notably hurt by an appreciation of the dollar.
The dollar gained 0.41% against the European currency at 1.0860 dollars for one euro.
In addition, the yen weakened by 1.06% against the dollar at 133.58 yen, clearly weighed down by the words of the new governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) seeming to rule out any next rate hike after ten years of ultra-fast monetary policy. -accommodating led by his predecessor.
© 2023 AFP
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