PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Wednesday after the publication of new economic indicators which support the scenario of lower inflationary pressures and a slowdown in demand in the United States, while forecasts of United Airlines temper the pessimism on the first results of the companies.
At the start of trading, the Dow Jones index gained 27.99 points, or 0.08%, to 33,938.84 points and the wider Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.29% to 4,002.81 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 0.65%, or 72.36 points, to 11,167.47.
An hour before the opening of Wall Street, the US Department of Labor indicated that producer prices had fallen by 0.5% in December compared to November, while year-on-year their increase had decelerated to 6.2% against a Reuters consensus of -0.1% and +6.8% respectively.
Retail sales, for their part, also fell more sharply than expected in December, falling 1.1% month-on-month and up 6.02% year-on-year. according to figures from the US Department of Commerce.
Both statistics support the prospect of a lull in the US Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike on February 1, with the probability of a limited 25 basis point rise in the cost of credit now standing at 94.7%. against 90.6% previously, with a “terminal rate” at 4.88% in June.
“These are good numbers that inflation has come down and the Fed has hit its target,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital.
As for financial publications, after the mixed quarterly results of the banks – those of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America having been applauded and those of Wells Fargo and Citigroup having disappointed – United Airlines pleasantly surprised investors on Tuesday evening.
The airline, whose stock is up 2.08%, said it expects its profit to quadruple at least this year after quarterly earnings beat Wall Street expectations. The air transport index gained 2.01% thanks to solid travel demand.
Despite this improvement, analysts are currently expecting a 2.4% decline in earnings for S&P-500 companies in the fourth quarter year on year compared to a 1.6% drop in the forecast at the start of the year.
In other corporate news, Moderna climbs 7.13% after positive results from its experimental respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) messenger RNA vaccine, while Tesla advances 2.92%, analysts estimate that the car manufacturer’s recent drop in prices will allow it to be more competitive on certain models.
GAP rose 2.02% and IBM fell 0.77%, Morgan Stanley having raised its recommendation on the first and lowered that of the second.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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