PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Tuesday in a context of risk aversion after the results considered disappointing by Goldman Sachs and a slowdown in economic growth in China in the fourth quarter.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 182.75 points, or 0.53%, to 34,119.86 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.20% to 3,991.06 points.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.43%, or 47.43 points, to 11,031.72.
US markets, closed Monday for the celebration of Martin Luther King Day, start the week in the red after a euphoric start to the year, buoyed by hopes of a lull in interest rates from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) with the slowdown in inflation in the United States.
Investors await data on retail sales (Wednesday), the job market (Thursday) and comments from Fed officials this week as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos which opened in Switzerland on Monday. .
In the meantime, the time is above all for the financial publications of companies. Goldman Sachs on Tuesday reported a sharper-than-expected decline in quarterly profit due in particular to heavy losses in its consumer business. The action fell 3.36%.
Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, took 4.64% after having published a profit above expectations in the fourth quarter thanks in particular to a good performance in trading activity which compensated for the weakness of mergers and acquisitions.
Since the start of the earnings season for financial groups on Friday, investors have been divided: while the quarterly results of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have been applauded, those of Wells Fargo and Citigroup have disappointed.
Analysts expect earnings for S&P-500 companies to decline an average of 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to data from Refinitiv.
In other corporate news, Chinese Wall Street-listed groups Alibaba, JD.Com and Baidu are losing 1.2% to 5.5% as Chinese growth in 2022 was among the weakest since 1976.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)