PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened in mixed order on Friday, with the Nasdaq buoyed by Netflix’s fourth-quarter recovery as fears of an economic recession in the United States weigh on the other two major indexes. Wall Street.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 80.04 points, or 0.24%, to 32,964.52 points. The wider Standard & Poor’s 500 climbed 0.03% to 3,900.37 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 0.38%, or 41.26 points, to 10,893.53.
Netflix reported on Thursday evening a gain of 7.66 million subscribers over the October-December period, beating Wall Street expectations which anticipated 4.57 million additional subscribers.
The co-founder of the online video giant, Reed Hastings, has also announced that he is leaving his post as general manager, entrusting the controls of the group to a duo made up of his deputy and the chief operating officer.
Netflix shares jumped 5.85% while the technology stock index took 0.22%, while the sector was shaken by a succession of layoff plans announced by Microsoft (+1.29%), Amazon ( -0.13%) and this Friday by Alphabet (+2.55%) against a backdrop of rising interest rates and economic uncertainties.
“Even though Netflix performed well, which is very promising, it will actually be one of the toughest earnings seasons for Big Tech,” predicted Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs.
“And we already have a glimpse of that because many of these companies have announced massive layoffs,” she added.
In earnings news, the department store chain Nordstrom fell 2.06% after lowering its annual profit forecast while Schlumberger lost 1.35% after its fourth quarter results.
After the euphoria at the start of the year, investors are now showing caution since several officials of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) insisted on the need to raise interest rates above 5%, against a current range of 4.25%-4.50%, which could cause a hard landing for the economy.
The US home resale figures, which will be released at 15:00 GMT, should shed new light on the slowdown in the housing market.
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(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)