PARIS, May 2 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange traded little changed at the open on Monday after posting its worst session since 2020 on Friday amid lingering concerns over inflation, global growth and the Reserve’s monetary policy federal.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 7.38 points, or 0.02%, to 32,984.59 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.07% to 4,128.88 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 0.19%, or 23.741 points, to 12,358.381.
On Friday, Wall Street suffered its biggest drop since 2020, weighed down by disappointing results and forecasts from Amazon and renewed concerns about inflation.
Faced with soaring prices, amplified by the crisis in Ukraine, the markets largely anticipate a rate hike of 50 basis points from the Federal Reserve which meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Everyone knows that (the rate hike) is going to happen (..). What worries is the orientations of Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed. Will a rate hike of 50 basis points will be expected in June or will it go to 75 basis points?” asks Thomas Hayes, strategist at Great Hill Capital.
The only important economic indicator of the day, the ISM services index, published at 2:00 p.m. GMT, is expected to rise slightly for April to 57.6 by the Reuters consensus against 57.1 the previous month.
In values, Spirit Airlines fell by 7.71% after rejecting the purchase offer from JetBlue Airways (+1.14%), preferring that of Frontier Airlines, considering that the operation is unlikely to be approved by competition authorities.
Activision Blizzard gains 2.97%, Berkshire Hathaway having announced a 9.5% stake in the game publisher’s capital.
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Matthieu Protard)