The floor of the New York Stock Exchange (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/SPENCER PLATT)
The New York Stock Exchange was modestly in the green after a hesitant open on Wednesday, with eyes on central bankers’ intentions amid slowing economic data.
The Dow Jones index gleaned 0.13% and the S&P 500 0.24%, while the tech-dominated Nasdaq advanced 0.40%.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones had dropped 0.47% to 32,909.59 points, the Nasdaq had stagnated at 12,381.30 points and the broader S&P 500 index had lost 0.22% to 4,128.73 points.
“The mood is fragile pending the symposium of central bankers in Jackson Hole” which starts Thursday in this mountain resort in Wyoming (northwestern United States), noted Wells Fargo analysts.
“All eyes are on Friday’s highly anticipated speech by Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell,” they added.
“Investors are bracing for his remarks to be tough, repeating the need to raise interest rates further to fight inflation despite signs of weakening economic activity,” they said.
This expectation of clarification on US monetary policy was combined with mixed economic indicators.
Durable goods orders stagnated in the United States in July, due to a fall in orders for military aircraft.
On the real estate front, promises of home sales fell by 1% in July for a second consecutive monthly decline, but less significant than expected by analysts. .
The day before, it was sales of new homes which had collapsed by 12.6% over the month and almost 30% over one year.
The stock market slowdown this week comes after a prolonged rebound since the end of June, driven by better than expected quarterly corporate results and some optimism regarding a change in tone for a more flexible monetary policy in the future.
On the bond market, yields on ten-year US Treasury bills rose to 3.09% from 3.04% the previous day, the highest in just over a month.
The dollar climbed (+0.33% for the dollar index) while the euro slipped 0.46% to 0.9924 dollars around 2:15 p.m. GMT.
On the market, the energy sector (+0.70%) led the modest rise of seven sectors out of the eleven of the S&P. Information technologies (-0.40%) brought up the rear.
On the side, the titles of department stores Nordstrom fell 19.27% while the chain cut in its sales forecast for the year indicating that it had notably observed in June a slowdown in purchases by lower-income consumers.
Peloton, in free fall since November with the waning of the Covid-19 pandemic and confinements, jumped 17% to 13.10 dollars. Investors were enthusiastically welcoming the smart exercise bike maker’s move to now sell its devices on Amazon, abandoning its exclusive distributor policy.
Electric scooter operator Birds Global was on fire 21% after winning new operating permits in a series of mid-size US cities.
Tesla (+2.26% to 909 dollars) was preparing after the market closed to divide its action by three. The electric vehicle manufacturer had already divided its share by five in 2020 to make the title more accessible to its employees and small shareholders, thus imitating several big names in tech.
Other stock market giants, whose stock has exploded in recent years, have carried out similar operations in recent times, such as Amazon and Alphabet (Google).
© 2022 AFP
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