(CercleFinance.com) – US equity markets are preparing to end a turbulent month of February without much change on Tuesday in the absence of new catalysts to prolong the rebound of the day before.
Half an hour before the opening, the futures contracts on the main New York indices advanced from 0.1% to 0.2%, announcing a sluggish start to the session, even a very slight increase.
After its thunderous start to the year, Wall Street no longer seems to know where to go for a week, a wavering that has pushed the S&P 500 index to gradually move away from the 4000 point mark.
For now, the month of February has ended with a drop of 2.3% for the S&P, 3.5% for the Dow Jones and around 1% for the Nasdaq.
It must be said that the economic news has been mixed: recent data has been strong enough to allay fears of a recession, but inflation figures have exceeded expectations.
This cocktail means that the Federal Reserve has no choice but to continue its restrictive monetary policy, perhaps by opting again for rate hikes of 50 basis points, an option it had no longer had. recourse since the end of 2022.
Investors have had to revise their expectations upwards, so much so that they now anticipate at least three further hikes after the next three Fed meetings.
Market players will know this week if the rise at the start of the year marked the start of a real upturn or if the weakness of recent weeks risks leading the indices towards pure and simple consolidation.
As a small glimmer of hope, cyclical stocks made a comeback yesterday, to the detriment of health care, utilities and consumer staples.
The consumer discretionary, industry and technology sectors thus supported the Dow and the Nasdaq, which rose 0.2% and 0.6% respectively at the final bell.
However, investor optimism could fizzle out, as illustrated by the new episode of tension rocking the bond market, which is reflected in a rise in yields.
The yield on ten-year Treasuries thus returned towards 3.94%, while the dollar lost ground to 1.0630 against the euro, far from the threshold of 1.05 established last week.
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