Operators of the New York Stock Exchange (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/SPENCER PLATT)
The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Friday, resisting the false note of Amazon, whose results disappointed, and showing a strength that appeals to investors.
Around 2:30 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones gained 1.60%, the Nasdaq index appreciated by 1.02% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 1.14%.
The New York market, and the Nasdaq, in particular, digested without apparent pain the hiccup of Amazon, which published its results Thursday, after the stock market.
The American distribution giant recorded a 9% drop in its net profit in the third quarter, and forecasts anemic growth for its standards, between 2% and 8% year on year for the fourth quarter, a crucial period of the year because it includes holidays.
Amazon took the water on Friday (-9.92% to 99.95 dollars), like Meta, the day before, and Alphabet, two days earlier, all weighed down by results and projections below the high-sounding figures to which these flagships of technology had accustomed Wall Street.
But most of the other major Nasdaq capitalizations held firm, like Microsoft (2.40%), Nvidia (+1.78%) or even Meta (+1.88%).
“The movements this week are really encouraging, because we saw a lot of negative figures, bad surprises, and the market still remained up,” commented Maris Ogg, of Tower Bridge Associates.
“It shows that people have factored in the prospects” of a slowing economy, she said. “So unless the forecast really deteriorates, the worst could be behind us” on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones was thus moving towards a sixth consecutive session of increases.
“There is still a lot of appetite for risk,” said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital.
Apple (+6.87% to 154.74 dollars) mitigated the rather bleak picture painted by the other four tech giants this week. It posted higher-than-expected revenue and profit on Thursday, even as iPhone sales missed the mark.
Unlike its competitors, the apple group also preserved its margins and showed cautious optimism for the current quarter.
Operators reacted relatively little to the publication of the PCE price index, closely followed by the Fed.
Inflation reached 6.2% in September over one year in the United States, in line with economists’ forecasts.
For Oren Klachkin, of Oxford Economics, the indicator only confirmed that “inflation was too high for the Fed and we believe that the milestones are laid for a hike in the key rate of 0.75 percentage points. in November, followed by a half point in December.”
“Investors are trying to convince themselves that we have found a floor” for the equity markets, on which to rebound, a feeling supported, in part, “on the belief that the Fed (American central bank) could be finished in the second quarter “2023 with its cycle of monetary tightening.
Thus, if operators still see the Fed’s key rate approaching or even exceeding 5% by spring, they are now counting on one or even two rate cuts by the end of 2023, a minority scenario there is still a week.
After several weeks of sudden movements, bond rates were once again moving within relatively tight margins. The yield on 10-year US government bonds stood at 3.98%, against 3.91% the day before.
On the side, no trace of Twitter, whose listing was suspended on Friday after the formalization of the takeover by Elon Musk and a probable imminent exit from the side.
ExxonMobil (+1.65% to 109.32 dollars), which had already reached its historic record in session the day before, remained at the forefront after the publication of a quarterly net profit well above analysts’ expectations, even if its turnover came out below forecasts.
The group took advantage of high oil and gas prices, and produced the largest volume of refined products in 14 years.
Its competitor Chevron (+0.56% to 178.89 dollars) did even better, smashing market estimates, with net profit almost doubled over one year. The group of San Ramon (California) notably multiplied by six its profits in international refining.
Colgate-Palmolive advanced (+1.28% to 74.17 dollars) after reporting results broadly in line with expectations, but marked by a compression of its margins and an increase in its costs. The group of hygiene and maintenance products has, moreover, revised slightly downwards its forecasts for the whole of the year.
© 2022 AFP
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