Wall Street, New York (AFP/ANGELA WEISS)
The New York Stock Exchange opened sharply higher on Friday, after slowing inflation in the United States which boosted the Nasdaq and once again propelled Apple above the bar of 3,000 billion dollars in capitalization.
The Dow Jones index gained 0.77%, the Nasdaq jumped by 1.49% and the broader S&P 500 index by 1.12% around 2:15 p.m. GMT.
Upon opening, Apple passed the $3,000 valuation mark, a threshold already reached in January 2022.
Inflation in May, measured by the PCE index, the favorite barometer of the American central bank (Fed), slowed to 3.8% year on year from 4.3% the month before, according to new data from the Commerce Department.
Over one month it fell to +0.1%.
Another positive indicator in the eyes of the Fed, household spending slowed its growth to +0.1% over the month against +0.6% in April. By raising rates, the central bank seeks to slow down demand, and therefore consumer prices.
“May’s income and expenditure data seem to confirm that consumption growth slowed sharply in the second quarter and provide encouraging signs that core inflation is gradually easing,” said Andrew Hunter of Capital Economics.
“This provides support to the doves of the Fed”, that is to say those who are less favorable to the continuation of the increase in key rates, continues the analyst. He thinks that at the monetary meeting at the end of July, the Fed will raise the cost of credit again but that it will be “the last time”.
Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, however, did not rule out this week that the US central bank is proceeding with two further rate hikes, possibly consecutive.
Above all, the central bank is keeping an eye on underlying inflation, excluding food and energy prices, which remains relatively tenacious, only slowing down over one year to 4.6% against 4.7% in April. Over one month, core inflation stood at 0.3% against 0.4%.
“Today the PCE index shows further progress in the battle against inflation, where we are lower than most other major economies,” the White House tweeted.
Taking advantage of the enthusiasm of the Nesdaq, Apple – already the most important group on the stock market planet – again crossed the bar of 3,000 billion in capitalization. The title had to exceed 190 dollars to reach this valuation. At 2:15 p.m. GMT, up 1.87%, it was at 193.14 dollars.
A strong rating from Citigroup bank helped boost the stock, said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com. Since the beginning of the year, the title of Apple has climbed 47%.
The apple group had briefly exceeded this threshold of 3,000 billion in January 2022 before giving ground, having bought back and canceled billions of dollars of shares which had lowered its market capitalization.
Elsewhere on the coast, all the big names in technology were on the rise. On the processor side, Nvidia climbed 2.95% and AMD 1.88%.
Tesla gained 2.30%, Meta almost 2% as did Microsoft.
After disappointing results announced the day before after the close, Nike lost 1.31% to 111.88 dollars.
The American sports equipment manufacturer Nike recorded a sharp drop in its quarterly net profit, under the effect of markdowns to reduce its inventories and cost increases, despite an increase in turnover.
Net profit came in at $1.0 billion for the fourth quarter of its staggered fiscal year that ended in late May, down 28% from the same period last year, according to a statement on Thursday.
On the bond market, yields on Treasury bills, which had risen the day before, stabilized at 3.83% for ten-year ones.
© 2023 AFP
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