(CercleFinance.com) – Wall Street should be hesitant on Wednesday morning, the announcement of a slowdown in hiring in the private sector having reassured investors while the Fed must make its decisions in the afternoon.
Half an hour before the opening, the ‘futures’ contract on the Dow Jones index fell by 0.1%, while that on the Nasdaq 100 fell by more than 0.9%, announcing a start to the session without much direction.
The main element of support for the trend, the survey published this morning by ADP showed that the American private sector had only generated 107,000 new jobs in January.
This figure is clearly below economists’ expectations, of around 150,000 but also down sharply compared to the 158,000 of the previous month.
As a result, this much worse-than-expected statistic has revived hopes that the Fed may soon have to ease its monetary policy.
As such, the CME Fedwatch barometer now anticipates with a probability of 48.6% a reduction in Fed rates of 25 basis points in March, compared to 40.4% yesterday.
While waiting for more clarity on the macroeconomic outlook, investors will turn their eyes to the Fed’s press release, which will be published early this afternoon.
Speakers hope that the American central bank will give clues about possible monetary easing in the coming months.
Publications of results also continue to punctuate discussions.
Microsoft and Alphabet reported solid results for the fourth quarter last night, but their shares were subject to profit-taking after their exceptional performance in recent months.
At yesterday’s closing prices, the two technology groups – which are part of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ – posted increases of more than 20% and 22% respectively on the stock market over the last three months.
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