(CercleFinance.com) – The US indices ended generally up, except for the Nasdaq which crumbled at the last minute by -0.03% due to Tesla’s -3.1%.
The ‘S&P’ and the Dow Jones posted a 14th session of increases out of 15 (and a 5th in a row), with new absolute records recorded for the Dow Jones (37,778) and for the Nasdaq-100 (16,969 points).
The ‘Dow’ claws up +0.15% to 37,710 but this is enough to set a 7th intraday and closing record in 15 days.
Ditto for the S&P500 which with +0.04% to 4,783 validates its best closing of 2023, 13 points from its zenith of January 3, 2020.
The ‘fact’ of the day will remain the heavy fall in oil (-3% towards $71.85), which erases all its gains since December 18.
In a context marked by the absence of a large part of investors, some figures published this afternoon in the US did not deviate Wall Street from its upward trajectory: the Department of Labor recorded 218,000 new registrations for unemployment benefits in the United States the week of December 18.
A figure up by 12,000 compared to the revised figure of the previous week (206,000 against 205,000 initially announced).
The four-week moving average – more representative of the underlying trend – stood at 212,000 last week, almost stable (-250) compared to the revised average of the previous week.
Finally, the number of people regularly receiving compensation increased by 14,000 to 1,875,000 in the previous week, the most recent period available for this statistic.
The US goods trade deficit widened to -$90.3 billion last month, from $89.6 billion in October, as exports (-3.6%) fell more than imports (-2.1%) from one month to the next.
The Department of Commerce, which publishes these preliminary estimates, also indicates that inventories fell by 0.2% in wholesale trade and by 0.1% in retail trade.
Finally, sales promises for new homes were unchanged in November but recorded a decline of -5.2% over 12 months.
The yield on T-Bonds deteriorates slightly, by +6 points to 3.848%.
Note that gold – an inverse reflection of rates – is stagnating below its historic highs, around $2,075 per ounce.
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