(CercleFinance.com) – The New York Stock Exchange is moving without a clear direction on Thursday, with investors catching their breath after the river scores signed the day before.
At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones fell 1% to 34,261.7 points, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.1% to 11,472.2 points.
Market participants appear to be taking a break from yesterday’s gains, which followed Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s remarks that the pace of rate hikes is expected to slow through to the end of the year. .
After the good performance made the day before, and more generally over the whole of last month (+4.3% for the Dow Jones in November), investors are waiting for new catalysts to see things more clearly and possibly get back to their purchases. .
This morning, investors had to digest new economic indicators that were divergent, but not destabilizing enough to trigger a big sell-off.
On the inflation side, the basic PCE index (‘core PCE’) – closely watched by the Federal Reserve – rose by 0.2% in October, after rising by 0.5% in September.
On an annual basis, its increase is reduced to 5% against +5.2% the previous month.
Another indicator published on Thursday, US household spending accelerated to +0.8% in October, at a slightly faster pace than their income (+0.7%), which confirms the good resistance of consumption.
On the industry side, the US manufacturing sector entered a contraction zone in November, with the ISM index coming out at 49 versus 50.2 in October.
Beyond today’s announcements, investors’ caution is explained by the wait-and-see attitude that prevails on the eve of the publication of employment figures, which will be the real highlight of this stock market week.
On the values front, Salesforce (-10%) signs the largest drop in the Dow Jones index, the quarterly results of the American software publisher being overshadowed by the unexpected announcement of the departure of its co-CEO.
Activision Blizzard climbed 0.6% as analysts at Wedbush added the stock to their list of best ideas.
In the rates market, 10-year government bond yields are back to their lowest levels since September (3.59%), with Powell’s remarks seeming to limit the risks of further rate hikes.
At 1.0495 against the euro, the dollar returned, for its part, to its lowest level since July in reaction to the remarks of the Fed boss.
On the oil side, the barrel of American light crude confirms its recovery, rising 2.7% to 82.7 dollars, the scenario favored by the markets now seeming that of a ‘soft landing’ of the economy which would not come too much harm to the demand for hydrocarbons.
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