June 23 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange was green at the open on Thursday, driven by gains in growth stocks as bond yields eased, although global growth concerns persisted.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 148.11 points, or 0.49%, to 30,631.24 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.56% to 3,780.8 points.
The Nasdaq Composite takes 0.72% (+79.81 points) to 11,132.889.
“It’s a bit of a technical rally (..) but there’s still room for market downside and a lot more downside risk,” said Greg Swenson, partner at Brigg Macadam.
In the previous session, the US indices ended slightly lower after statements in the Senate by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who assured that the central bank was “strongly determined” to bring down inflation, which reached its highest level in 40 years, despite the risk of recession.
His second hearing, this time before the House Financial Services Committee, will take place at 2:00 p.m. GMT.
For Citigroup, the probability of a global recession is close to 50% due to the tightening of central bank policies.
Last week, the S&P 500 confirmed its entry into the “bear market” with a loss of more than 20% from its closing peak on January 3 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq lost more than 30% since its peak in November.
In this uncertain context for the economy, government bonds, safe haven assets par excellence, are sought after, which leads to lower yields.
The US ten-year paper lost 8 basis points to 3.0758%, the lowest in two weeks.
Growth stocks benefit: Apple gains 1.14%, Microsoft 0.76% and Amazon 1.06%.
Against the trend, Accenture lost 2.05% after a quarterly revenue forecast worse than expected.
As for indicators, jobless claims fell slightly less than expected last week, to 229,000.
(Written by Olivier Cherfan, edited by Laetitia Volga and Kate Entringer)