(CercleFinance.com) – American stock markets continued to rise on Wednesday, supported by cyclical stocks while investors are counting on continued robust economic growth.
At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones advanced 0.5% to 38,707.3 points, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.9% to 15,748.6 points, after reaching a new historic peak.
With a gain of 0.7% to 4991.4 points, the S&P 500 also sets new records and is getting closer and closer to the unexplored level of 5000 points.
The strong economic statistics recently released in the United States, as well as a rather solid earnings season, are pushing investors towards sectors associated with economic growth.
The materials (+0.9%), industry (+0.7%) and non-essential consumption (+0.9%) sectors are thus at the forefront of the markets.
The gains, however, remain limited, with investors being rather cautious at a time when the pace of company results publications tends to accelerate.
Ford gains more than 2% following better-than-expected quarterly results, despite the UAW strike, and a positive outlook for 2024.
Yum! Brands gained 3.7% after results without much brilliance, but the operator of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands was optimistic by planning to cross the threshold of 60,000 restaurants worldwide during 2024.
Uber is stable after revealing an attributable net profit of $1.4 billion for the last quarter of 2023, as well as an adjusted EBITDA margin improving by 1.2 points to 3.4%, a new historic record .
Bucking the trend, Snap – the owner of the Snapchat messaging application – fell 30% after reporting disappointing results and forecasts.
According to UBS data, 71% of the companies in the S&P index which published their accounts exceeded the consensus, with average EPS growth of 10%, mainly driven by the technology sector (+40%).
On the statistics front, the United States trade deficit widened slightly to $62.2 billion in December, compared to $61.9 billion in November, according to figures from the Commerce Department.
On the energy side, the barrel of light Texan crude changed little and nibbled 0.2% to 73.4 dollars following the announcement of a new weekly increase in crude oil stocks
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