(CercleFinance.com) – The New York Stock Exchange is looking for a trend on Thursday, as investors seem torn between disappointing economic indicators, the rebound in oil prices and good results from Cisco.
At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones fell 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced inversely by 0.1% to 12,957.1 points.
Since the start of the week, investors have been struggling to find new reasons to extend the summer rally that has been underway for two months, which has enabled the S&P 500 index to regain 17% of its value.
In the absence of real catalysts at this low point in August, the markets prefer to take a break in the face of the many uncertainties of the moment.
Among the few supporting factors today, oil prices continued to rise following the announcement of a sharp decline in crude oil and gasoline inventories in the United States.
With a gain of almost 3%, the barrel of Texan crude is back above the 90 dollar threshold and Brent from the North Sea, also up by almost 3%, exceeds the 96 dollar mark.
In their wake, energy stocks rose 2%, the best sector performance of the S&P 500. The second biggest rise in the Dow, Chevron won 1.3% while ExxonMobil won close to 2%.
Unreassuring indicators, however, erased the positive effects of the continued rebound in oil.
Investors learned shortly after the open that the Conference Board’s leading indicators index (-0.4%) fell for the fifth straight month, a bearish streak that heightens the risks of a recession in the coming months. month.
Another cause for concern, sales of old homes fell by 5.9% in July compared to June, according to the National Federation of Estate Agents (NAR), a figure which seems to confirm the difficulties of the real estate sector.
All of this data reinforces the growing skepticism about the health of the US economy, without however calling into question the scenario of a continuation of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Biggest rise in the Dow, the networking equipment giant Cisco managed to climb more than 6% following the publication of solid quarterly results, which somewhat eased investors’ fears about the economic slowdown.
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