(CercleFinance.com) – The New York Stock Exchange should open slightly lower on Friday morning, with investors catching their breath after the recent sequence of increases driven by hopes of lower rates.
Half an hour before the opening, ‘futures’ contracts on the main New York indices lost between 0.1% and 0.3%, announcing a start to the session in the red.
With a monthly gain of around 9%, Wall Street had its best month of the year in November, but the speed and extent of this upward movement are beginning to worry some analysts.
‘It is not unlikely that we will see profit taking in the short term,’ predicts a professional.
After such a performance, market participants could indeed be tempted to slow down, especially as the day promises to be packed with high-profile economic meetings.
The ISM index of manufacturing activity will appear at the very start of the session, with the question of whether it will confirm the scenario of a soft landing for the economy which has emerged this week.
Given the evolution of the business climate in industry, the ISM should rebound in November, but probably not enough to allow it to escape the contraction zone where it has been for twelve months.
Investors could also be cautious before a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at Spelman College (Atlanta).
Still, the spectacular autumn rebound signed by Wall Street may have prepared the ground for the famous end-of-year ‘rally’.
For the record, December is traditionally one of the best months of the year for the S&P 500 index, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, with a historical average increase of around 1.5% since 1950.
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