by Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended higher on Thursday after a choppy session as the market appeared to shrug off conservative comments the day before from the head of the Federal Reserve (Fed). , Jerome Powell, to favor the hypothesis of a pause in the campaign to raise interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.23%, or 75.14 points, to 32,105.25 points.
The broader S&P-500 gained 11.75 points, or 0.30%, to 3,948.72 points.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced for its part by 117.44 points (1.01%) to 11,787.40 points.
The three main Wall Street indexes also rebounded under the effect of once again reassuring comments before Congress from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the protection of American savings.
“The market rebounded today after a dovish Fed hike yesterday,” commented Ross Mayfield, an analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. “Powell has done a good job of sticking to the inflation talk and continuing to appear conservative, despite a rather dovish hike,” he said.
While it had oriented upwards in the wake of the publication of the Fed statement on Wednesday, Wall Street had tipped into the red after the conference of Jerome Powell, who had stressed that the American central bank had not hands tied in its fight against inflation despite the recent turmoil in the banking sector.
These comments have fueled speculation that the Fed’s aggressive policy will eventually push the US economy into recession, fears heightened by the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
The markets were reassured by the position of the Bank of England (BoE), which estimated that inflation could quickly deflate. These comments paint a picture of a network of global central banks “ready to slow” the pace of rate hikes, Ross Mayfield said.
However, data released during the day showed that weekly jobless claims in the United States declined while sales of new homes rose unexpectedly, illustrating the resilience of the economy.
Among the major sectors of the S&P-500, only two – communication services and technology – ended the session in the green.
On the values side, First Republic Bank declined by 6.0% on the sidelines of Janet Yellen’s hearing before Congress.
Coinbase Global fell 14.1% after the market regulator threatened to take legal action against the cryptocurrency specialist.
(French version Jean Terzian)
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