(CercleFinance.com) – The New York Stock Exchange moved without much change on Wednesday, with investors taking a pause while awaiting announcements from the Fed and the speech of its president, Jerome Powell.
At midday, the Dow Jones was stable at 39,126.8 points, while the Nasdaq Composite remained virtually unchanged at 16,163.6 points.
In the absence of major indicators, the main concern of investors remains the press release from the American Federal Reserve, which will appear shortly after lunchtime, before a highly anticipated press conference by Jerome Powell.
The markets are awaiting possible clues as to the evolution of American interest rates after several signals suggesting that a relaxation of monetary policy was not to be expected immediately.
However, the markets want to continue to believe in the scenario of three rate cuts this year.
The prospect of support for the economy is one of the main factors of Wall Street’s rise since the start of the year, a dynamic which has allowed the S&P 500, the benchmark index for fund managers, to rise. reach record levels.
The need to take a break, however, is starting to become more pressing, especially since the rise in the S&P, which has already reached more than 8% since January 1, has so far been very concentrated.
According to calculations by Citi analysts, five stocks (Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta and Google) are responsible for 4.7% of the 8.3% increase posted by the benchmark index this year. year.
On the bond market, the yield on ten-year American Treasuries symbolically fell by 0.5 points, towards 4.28%, ahead of the Fed’s decisions.
Crude prices fell a little after their annual highs reached the day before, despite the announcement by the American Energy Information Agency (EIA) of a slight weekly decline in crude oil stocks.
American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) fell 2.4% to 81.5 dollars while it was close to 83.5 dollars on Tuesday, its highest since the end of October.
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