An operator of the New York Stock Exchange (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
The New York Stock Exchange ended on a mixed note on Tuesday, still stuck in tight margins, a sign of a cautious market awaiting the publication of a crucial inflation indicator on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones finished close to balance (-0.02%), the Nasdaq index gained 0.32% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.14%.
“The market is moving up and down,” noted Jack Ablin, of Cresset Capital, referring to a session which resembled, almost exactly, that of the day before, with an opening in the green followed by moderate oscillations.
“Everyone is waiting for the inflation report tomorrow,” explained the analyst, referring to the CPI price index.
Economists are counting on a slowdown in inflation in March compared to February, to 0.3% over one month compared to 0.4% previously, but predict, on the other hand, an acceleration over one year, to 3.4% compared to 3.2%.
“This will help us determine the trajectory of the Fed (American central bank),” anticipated Jack Ablin. “A higher-than-expected figure could push the first rate cut back to next year.”
Caution was required during this waiting session, and many investors took refuge in assets deemed the safest, primarily sovereign bonds.
The yield on 10-year US government bonds, which moves in the opposite direction to their prices, fell to 4.35%, compared to 4.42% the day before at closing.
On the market, so-called defensive values, that is to say theoretically less sensitive to the economic situation, were popular, whether it was the industrial conglomerate 3M (+0.74%), the sports equipment manufacturer Nike (+1.11%) or Procter & Gamble (+0.40%).
But this movement was not enough to keep the Dow Jones above water, weighed down by financials, from American Express (-1.91%) to Visa (-0.37%), via JPMorgan Chase (-0.67%), whose boss, Jamie Dimon, warned on Monday that the American economy could experience some turbulence in the months to come, breaking with the dominant scenario of a soft landing.
Elsewhere, Boeing was shaken (-1.89%) after reporting that it had delivered only 83 planes in the first quarter, compared to 130 a year earlier.
Furthermore, the New York Times revealed that the American civil aviation regulator, the FAA, had opened an investigation into the assembly of the 787 Dreamliner and 777, after being contacted by an employee of the aircraft manufacturer.
The railway company Norfolk Southern (+1.25%) took advantage of an agreement reached to settle a class action relating to the derailment of a freight train containing harmful chemicals, in February 2023. The Atlanta group will pay 600 million dollars to local residents, some of whom had to be evacuated.
Tesla rose (+2.25%) after reaching an amicable settlement with the family of an Apple engineer who died in a road accident, in return for a payment, the amount of which was not revealed. Relatives claimed that the driver assistance system had malfunctioned and was partially responsible for the accident.
This agreement saves the car manufacturer from a trial which would have been an opportunity to return in detail to Tesla’s driving assistance software, “Autopilot”, the subject of several legal proceedings.
Alphabet (+1.28%) was supported by the announcement of the launch of its new chip, called Axion, developed in collaboration with the British Arm and intended for data storage centers and the development of artificial intelligence (AI ).
Giants of remote computing (cloud computing) and semiconductors are chasing Nvidia (-2.04%), which has positioned itself as a leader in the chips necessary for generative AI.
Moderna jumped (+6.19%) after the publication of positive clinical results on a new vaccine which, combined with the anti-cancer Keytruda from the Merck laboratory (+0.12%), aims to treat certain head tumors and neck.
© 2024 AFP
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