PARIS / LONDON (Agefi-Dow Jones) – The New York Stock Exchange traded volatile on Friday at the start of the session after the announcement of lower-than-expected job creation in the United States in December and new tensions on bond rates.
Around 3:40 p.m., the Dow Jones (DJIA) index lost 0.1% to 36,223 points while the extended S&P 500 index gained 0.1% to 4,689 points. At the same time, the Nasdaq index, rich in technology stocks, gained 0.5%, to 15,048 points, after having started down 0.2%.
The United States created fewer jobs than expected in December but the country’s unemployment rate fell further, suggesting, as some members of the Federal Reserve (Fed) believe, the country is close to full employment. According to data released Friday by the Department of Labor, the US economy created 199,000 net jobs in December, against 249,000 in November, in revised data. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal anticipated 422,000 job openings last month. The unemployment rate in the United States fell to 3.9% in December, against 4.2% in November and 4.1% expected by economists.
US markets had a rough weekend, chaining two sessions of sharp declines, after minutes from the last Fed meeting confirmed on Wednesday that the central bank was planning to hike rates faster than previously expected, due to soaring consumer prices in the United States. Some Fed officials have also said they are ready to begin reducing the central bank’s balance sheet soon after the rate hike begins.
“The speed at which the Fed will tighten its monetary policy is the only thing that interests the markets this week,” said Fahad Kamal, investment manager at Kleinwort Hambros. “We are going to live a year of transition, where we will go from exceptional monetary support to an effective tightening. High volatility will dominate [sur les marchés] as we try to adapt to this new paradigm, ”he adds.
In the bond market, the 10-year US Treasury bond rate is up 3 basis points to 1.7670%. The 2-year, more sensitive to the Fed’s federal funds rate, gained 1 basis point, to 0.894%.
VALUES TO FOLLOW:
– GameStop shares jump 19% after the Wall Street Journal reported the company’s decision to launch a division to develop a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and establish crypto partnerships currencies.
-The International Trade Commission (ITC), a federal court in charge of international trade disputes, ruled that Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet (+ 0.2%), had infringed patents of the manufacturer of wireless speakers Sonos related to the audio synchronization, volume control and Wi-Fi connection. A Google spokesperson said the group would appeal the decision.
– Pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced Friday that it has entered into a research collaboration and licensing agreement with artificial intelligence-driven pharmaceutical technology company Exscientia (+ 5%, to $ 19, on Nasdaq). UK-based “Exscientia will receive an upfront payment of $ 100 million in cash, to which may be supplemented by milestone payments of up to a total of $ 5.2 billion, as well as progressive royalties,” said Sanofi said in a press release.
-Anna Hirtenstein, The Wall Street Journal (French version and contribution Lydie Boucher, Jérôme Batteau, Valérie Venck) ed: ECH – FXS
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January 07, 2022 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)