PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange traded little changed on Thursday after surging the day before as the dollar and Treasury yields fell sharply on the prospect of a slower pace of monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve, reinforced by the latest inflation measures.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 32.45 points, or 0.09%, to 34,557.32 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.23% to 4,089.32 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 0.03%, or 3.58 points, to 11,471.576.
The latter gained 2.2% to 4.4% on Wednesday, as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank could slow the pace of rate hikes on Dec. 14.
The latter took note of the latest figures from its preferred measure of inflation, the “core PCE” price index, which came out up 0.2% in October, against +0.5% a month earlier, and 5% over one year, after 5.2% in September.
“These figures confirm that inflation is indeed slowing, which lends credence to the idea of the Fed raising rates by 50 basis points in December, then ending the monetary tightening cycle probably at the end of the first quarter,” he said. said Sam Stovall, chief strategy officer at CFRA Research.
According to the CME Group’s “FedWatch” barometer, investors estimate at 91% the probability of a half-point increase in the “fed funds” rate target at the end of the next FOMC after having raised by 75 basis points in the last four meetings.
The dollar lost 0.96% against a basket of benchmark currencies and the yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds fell to 3.62%.
In values, Salesforce drops 8.63%, the software publisher having announced the departure of co-CEO Bret Taylor.
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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