New York (AFP) – The New York Stock Exchange closed higher on Thursday, buoyed by bargain hunting and hope for relief in the oil market.
The Dow Jones gained 1.33%, the Nasdaq index, 2.69%, and the broader S&P 500 index, 1.84%.
Thursday’s rebound was fueled by bargain buying following two straight sessions of declines, according to LPL Financial’s Quincy Krosby. “It’s still attractive,” she explained.
Technology and growth stocks have particularly benefited from this movement, from Tesla (+4.68%) to Alphabet (+3.16%), via Amazon (+3.15%).
Meta (ex-Facebook) did even better (+5.42% to 198.86 dollars), following a dropout on Wednesday, following the announcement of the resignation of number two Sheryl Sandberg, key figure in the transformation of the network social into a juggernaut.
The general tone was also favorable to tech, according to Quincy Krosby, due to some good results published this week, mainly the specialist in customer relations Salesforce (+7.00% to 188.40 dollars), which raised its forecasts profit for its entire financial year.
Even the lowering of Microsoft’s forecasts (+0.79% to 274.58 dollars), yet one of the most reliable technology groups in terms of results, was not enough to upset the New York market.
The marked appreciation of the dollar penalizes the group’s sales made abroad, which has led the Redmond (Washington) giant to revise downwards both its turnover and profit forecasts for the fourth quarter of its staggered exercise (from April to June).
For Edward Moya, of Oanda, some were also encouraged to take positions before the publication, Friday by the Ministry of Labor, of the report on American employment.
“Traders are expecting the labor market to slow down, which might ease inflation fears a bit,” the analyst said.
On Thursday, the ADP cabinet report reported 128,000 jobs created in May in the private sector, less than half of what economists expected (295,000).
In addition, the April figures have been revised downwards, from 247,000 to 202,000 job creations.
“The ADP report has been off the mark for two years,” said Maris Ogg of Tower Bridge Advisors. “I don’t think you need to pay much attention to it.”
Last ray of sunshine on Wall Street, the announcement of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies of the OPEC + agreement of a higher than expected increase in their production in July.
“This is significant,” commented Peter McNally of Third Bridge, as “for two years this is the first deviation from the planned increases.”
The only ones not to benefit from this acceleration were, unsurprisingly, oil stocks, which are among the few to have done better than float since the beginning of the year.
ConocoPhillips (-0.68%), Occidental Petroleum (-1.59%) or Marathon Oil (-0.57%) all ended in the red.
The specialist in remote computing (cloud) Hewlett Packard Enterprise was sanctioned (-5.20% to 14.96 dollars) following the publication of results slightly below expectations.
The group, born from the split of Hewlett-Packard in 2015, has also adjusted downwards its profit forecast for its 2022 financial year.
Wall Street, on the other hand, hailed the results, better than expected, of the multi-brand ready-to-wear group PVH (1.91% to 72.47 dollars), driven by the dynamism of the Calvin Klein brand, especially in North America.
The banner of the movement of “same stocks” (shares whose price was propelled by small holders), GameStop, gained ground (+ 10.38% to 134.00 dollars), despite a loss almost tripled on a year, in parallel with an increase in turnover.
© 2022 AFP
