On the New York Stock Exchange, September 6, 2022 (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives/Michael M. Santiago)
The New York Stock Exchange was in the green on Tuesday, election day for the United States Congress, as investors expected a divided government to come out of the polls, which is not to displease the markets.
The Dow Jones index climbed 0.97%, the technology-dominated Nasdaq advanced 0.53% and the S&P 500 0.63% around 3:20 p.m. GMT.
The day before, the Dow Jones had already gained 1.31% to 32,827.00 points, the Nasdaq had taken 0.85% to 10,564.52 points and the broader S&P 500 index had risen by 0.96% to 3,806.80. points.
“Polls suggest the most likely outcome will be a Republican victory in at least one house of Congress, leaving a divided government,” noted Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.
Democratic President Joe Biden himself has conceded that keeping control of the House of Representatives will be “difficult” as he hopes his party will retain a narrow majority in the Senate.
But “as a general rule, for the market, an administration in an impasse is something favorable”, added Art Hogan.
“That means fewer policy changes, less risk to individual sectors like energy or healthcare, fewer major changes to the tax code,” the analyst summed up.
The first electoral results could be announced from 7:00 p.m. (00:00 GMT) but the outcome of the tightest duels could be delayed for several days.
The stock market’s positive attitude “also has to do with the fact that the market has traditionally done well in the twelve months following midterm elections,” added Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com. He cites statistics that suggest an average gain of 14.5% over these periods since 1950.
In the immediate future, on the economic front, investors are above all awaiting the publication of the consumer price index (CPI) on Thursday, which will weigh on the future attitude of the Central Bank (Fed) vis-à-vis its pace of interest rate hikes.
Analysts are still forecasting a monthly increase of 0.5% for October after +0.6% the month before.
Eight out of the eleven S&P sectors were in the green, led by information technology (+1.36%), materials (+1.14%) and to a lesser extent by real estate (+0, 59%).
The energy sector (-1.33%) fell on the other hand in the wake of a decline of more than 1% in the price of black gold.
On the stock market, Tesla was brooding for the second session in a row (-4.25%) as investors watched how Elon Musk was going to manage the costly takeover of Twitter, delisted.
The car rental company with driver Lyft plunged 18.53% to 11.49 dollars, heavily sanctioned despite record quarterly turnover but a little below forecasts and above all driven more by its price increases than by the volume of his clients.
The share price of Take-Two Interactive, the video game publisher and owner of Rockstar Games, fell almost 12% after the group sharply lowered its revenue forecast for the year and missed its second quarter target. .
In the same sector, Activision Blizzard (+0.70%), the American video game publisher in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, reported a decline in its results in the third quarter but is counting on the success of the new installment of its Call of Duty game and the solid performance of Candy Crush.
The chain of drugstores and pharmacies Walgreens continued its rise started the day before (+ 2.25%) following the announcement of the acquisition, via its subsidiary Willage Practice Management, of a network of emergency care pharmacies , Summit Health, for nearly $8.9 billion.
The cruise operator Norwegian Cruise Line soared by 9.24% due to a quarterly loss per share that was less significant than expected and above all a sharp increase in sales, far exceeding market expectations.
© 2022 AFP
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