(CercleFinance.com) – The New York Stock Exchange ended Friday’s session in the red, despite a good surprise on the employment front: the Dow Jones fell 0.4% to 33,926 points, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.6% to 12,007 points.
The US economy generated 517,000 non-farm jobs in January, a number well above market expectations, and the unemployment rate fell another 0.1 point to 3.4%.
‘These figures should reinforce the Fed’s desire to maintain a firm stance on inflation,’ reacted Roland Toulet Morlanne, portfolio manager at Degroof Petercam Wealth Management France.
According to the analyst, this outlook risked being at odds with the scenario favored by investors, who interpreted the recent slowdown in the Fed’s rate hike as a signal for a more accommodative policy. within the next few months.
‘Even though wage pressures have eased, the labor market is likely to remain unbalanced from the Fed’s perspective. Interest rate hikes should therefore continue’, it was estimated on the side of Commerzbank.
Other data from the session showing some resilience in the US economy, the S&P Global composite PMI rose to 46.8 for the past month, while the ISM services index climbed more than expected, to reach 55.2.
In addition to the mixed reading of the employment report, the Nasdaq suffered from variously received quarterly results in the technology sector: if Apple (+2.4%) was able to satisfy investors, the same cannot be said of Alphabet (- 2.7%) and especially from Amazon (-8.4%).
Among the other groups that unveiled their results the night before, the operators slightly neglected Qualcomm (-0.6%), but sanctioned Starbucks much more frankly (-4.4%) and even more Ford (-7.6%). ).
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