(CercleFinance.com) – Wall Street is moving without much direction on Tuesday after its records of last week, in the wake of a series of rather solid results, but insufficient to allow the markets to record new highs.
A little over an hour after the opening, the Dow Jones advanced 0.2% to 38,469.1 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1% to 15,583.5 points.
The three major indexes all set all-time highs last week, buoyed by strong economic indicators that overshadowed Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s cautious statements about future rate cuts.
Several leading companies this morning reported better than expected quarterly performances, without however allowing the markets to move upwards.
The title of the chemist DuPont rose more than 6% in early trading and recorded one of the best performances in the S&P 500 index after predicting a recovery in the electronics market.
GE Healthcare climbs 11% after seeing its orders increase 3% organically in the fourth quarter, giving a solid book-to-bill ratio at 1.05 times.
Linde gains more than 3% after announcing that it is targeting earnings per share growth of between 8% and 11% at constant exchange rates for this year.
But while Wall Street is moving close to record levels, investors believe that these results are not impressive enough to push already high valuations further.
For now, 72% of S&P 500 companies that have published their accounts have exceeded consensus, according to FactSet, compared to an average of 74% over the last ten years.
UPS shares jumped 3.9% in the wake of a favorable recommendation from analysts at the Swiss investment bank UBS, while Ford gained 2.8% while awaiting the publication of its quarterly accounts, scheduled for the evening.
On the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasuries eases significantly and returns to around 4.11% after its feverish bout of recent sessions, due to the recalibration of expectations of rate cuts by the Fed.
On the currency side, the dollar is no longer able to regain ground against the euro, which is rising to around 1.0745, despite the good news surrounding the health of the American economy.
Optimism for growth in the United States following the solid statistics published in recent days is driving demand for oil and pushing up crude prices: the barrel of American light crude (WTI) increased by 0.6% to more than 73 .2 dollars.
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