The Wall Street district, in New York (AFP/Charly TRIBALLEAU)
The New York Stock Exchange concluded in mixed order on Friday, weighed down by the big names in technology which were dragged down by the disappointing prospects of Netflix.
The Dow Jones index kept its head above water, gaining 0.56% to 37,986.40 points. But the Nasdaq fell 2.05% to 15,282.01 points and the S&P, in loss for the sixth session in a row, lost 0.88% to 4,967.23 points.
The broader index, the most representative of the market, has thus symbolically fallen below the 5,000 point mark for the first time since February.
Geopolitical concerns surrounding the confrontation between Israel and Iran, the remoteness of a rate cut from the American central bank (Fed) and the apprehension of a series of company results next week have disoriented investors and made them cautious.
“The element of geopolitical uncertainty remains very present, as does that relating to the reduction of interest rates,” summarized Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
The analyst pointed out that one of the central bank officials, Neel Kashkari of the Minneapolis Fed branch, a non-voting member of the Monetary Committee this year, “suggested that the Fed could wait until 2025 before lowering rates “.
The Dow Jones managed to stay in the green because, according to Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital, the market had already taken into account Israel’s retaliation against Iran which remained limited.
Several explosions were reported early Friday in central Iran, with senior U.S. officials quoted by media reports as saying an Israeli attack was in retaliation for drone and missile strikes against Israel last weekend.
Several banking or financial stocks helped the star stock index to remain in positive territory.
American Express gained 6.23% to $231 after the credit card group announced good results, thanks to an increase in consumer spending and after attracting new customers.
Other financial groups performed well such as JPMorgan Chase (+2.51%), Bank of America (+3.35%) or the insurer Travelers (+1.68%).
On the Nasdaq side, however, technology took on water, driven by a disappointment in Netflix’s results.
In total, the “Magnificent Seven” which are the big names in tech ranging from Microsoft to Nvidia via Apple, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Tesla, have alone returned more than $900 billion in capitalization to Wall Street. this week.
Streaming leader Netflix announced good results on Thursday after the market closed, having attracted 9 million new subscribers during the quarter to bring them to 270 million. But the stock, which doubled over a year, fell 9.09% to $555.
The group, which made a quarterly profit of $2.3 billion, warned that its subscriber gains would be lower in the future and this is what investors have remembered. Netflix further announced that it would no longer disclose its quarterly subscriber figures.
Another sharp decline, that of Nvidia: the designer of chips for artificial intelligence (AI), darling of investors on Wall Street, dropped 10% to 762 dollars.
Other manufacturers of semiconductors and microprocessors have also lost favor with stock markets, notably the manufacturer of servers and storage solutions Super Micro Computer (SMCI), highly sought after for the AI sector, which has melted of 23.14%.
Tesla, at its lowest level in more than a year ($147), lost another 1.92%.
This correction in technology stocks comes as investors position themselves with anxiety before next week’s results announcements.
In the sector, accounts from Tesla, Meta, Intel, Microsoft and Alphabet are expected next week.
“To these results will be added two important macroeconomic indicators,” recalled Peter Cardillo, referring to a first estimate of American growth in the first quarter expected Thursday and to PCE inflation, the Fed’s favorite measure to gauge price action on Friday.
© 2024 AFP
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