A New York Stock Exchange operator (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/SPENCER PLATT)
The New York Stock Exchange closed lower on Monday, continuing its foray into negative territory, still under the influence of US employment figures which raise fears of an extension of the monetary screw of the Fed.
The technology sector, very sensitive to the rise in the cost of money which affects its investment capacities, led the loss, the Nasdaq index falling 1.00% to 11,887.45 points. The Dow Jones fell 0.10% to 33,891.02 points and the S&P 500 0.61% to 4,111.08 points, according to final results.
“There are questions about what the Fed is going to do after the important job market figures on Friday, such as the decline in the unemployment rate, stronger than expected hiring and the upward revisions of the previous months”, said Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Economics.
On Friday, the Labor Department counted 517,000 new hires in January when analysts expected 187,000, a shock for the market.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, its lowest level since May 1969.
For Mr. Johnson, this dynamism of the labor market could lead the Fed to “raise its estimate of the final rate at the next monetary meeting in March to 5.5%”.
“We are not going to see a break in rate hikes anytime soon,” he said, adding that under these conditions a rise was looming “not only in March, but also in May and in the third quarter”, or even more. late.
The equity market, which hardly tastes the increase in the cost of money, “is more concerned than it was last week and this is causing profit-taking,” said Mr. Johnson.
Thus the big caps of tech have dropped ballast like Apple (-1.79%) or Alphabet, the parent company of Google (-1.66%).
The title of computer manufacturer Dell fell 3.02% to 40.97 dollars after announcing that it was cutting 5% of its workforce, or 6,650 jobs, while its turnover in the 3rd quarter of its staggered fiscal year fell. down 6%.
Another source of concern for investors, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell, will be interviewed by the Economic Club of Washington on Tuesday on the state of the economy.
For Edwards Moya of Oanda, disappointing corporate results but also geopolitical tensions with the Chinese balloon incident also made Wall Street nervous. On Saturday, Washington shot down a Chinese observation balloon accused by the United States of spying.
Mining giant Newmont, one of the world’s leading gold mining companies, has made an offer to buy out Australian rival Newcrest for around $17 billion. The initiative was poorly received, the action losing 4.52% dollars.
The video game group Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty) lost 4.86% at the close before the announcement of its results. The course of Take-Two Interactive, also a video game publisher, lost 2.43% in post-closing electronic trading after having already lost 3.40%. The Grand Theft Auto publisher missed its Q3 sales and player engagement targets.
The price of the food group Tyson Foods, one of the first American exporters of meat, fell 4.61% after announcing quarterly results well below forecasts due to a slowdown in demand.
Reacting to Fed rate concerns, yields on two-year Treasuries jumped to 4.47% from 4.28% at the end of the week. Those at 30 years old were also clearly tending to 3.64% against 3.52% on Friday.
© 2023 AFP
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