New York (AFP) – The New York Stock Exchange closed weakly in the red on Wednesday, following a mixed session, pending a key figure for US inflation on Thursday and while the Fed confirmed its determination to fight this rise in prices.
In the last minutes of trading, the indices slipped into negative territory, the Dow Jones index yielding 0.10% to 29,210.85 points, the Nasdaq 0.09% to 10,417.10 points and the broader S&P 500 index dropping 0.33% to 3,577.03 points.
The publication of the minutes of the last monetary meeting of the Fed (the “minutes”) confirmed the strong determination of the American central bank to fight once morest inflation by raising interest rates at the cost of a slowdown in growth and the job market.
The tightening of monetary policy must continue “despite the slowdown in the job market”, because inflation (8.3% in August over one year, according to the CPI index) is at an “unacceptable” level, said the Monetary Committee.
But this firm resolution did not move the market more than reason, which, according to analysts, has already taken into account the determination of the institution.
“The Fed minutes didn’t tell us anything new that the market didn’t already know,” Spartan Capital’s Peter Cardillo told AFP.
Members of the Federal Reserve (Fed) “reiterated that they are on course to keep rates high and they intend to raise them once more, these two points do not change the outlook,” added the analyst.
Edward Moya of Oanda even saw the minutes as a sign of optimism for the markets as some Fed officials insisted on the need to “calibrate” the pace of rate hikes “to mitigate the risk of significant negative effects on the economic outlook”.
Thursday, before the opening of the Stock Exchange, the markets will watch for the CPI inflation index which should be slightly down over one year at 8.1%, but still above 8% for the seventh month. in a row, according to analysts.
Wholesale prices (PPI index), published on Wednesday, for their part started to rise once more in September, gaining 0.4% once morest -0.2% in August and +0.2% forecast.
Over one year, however, they slowed to 8.5%, showing, according to Peter Cardillo, that “inflation has probably peaked at the level of producer prices”.
Investors also watched with a keen eye the vicissitudes of the British bond market, following the Bank of England confirmed the words of its governor Andrew Bailey, in Washington the day before, indicating that its emergency purchases of Treasury would cease on Friday.
But the British monetary authorities remain under pressure to reconsider this decision.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the BoE ends up raising rates sharply, by a full percentage point to both fight inflation and rescue the pound,” said Peter Cardillo.
The British currency recovered on Friday once morest the greenback, to 1.1096 dollars (+ 1.18%) around 8:00 p.m. GMT.
US bond yields on ten-year Treasury bills fell to 3.89% from 3.94% the previous day. The dollar held up (+0.5% for the Dollar index), while oil prices fell sharply by more than 2%, frightened by inflation and its possible impact on demand.
Listed, most of the eleven S&P sectors fell, notably utilities (-3.42%), real estate (-1.39) and materials (-0.80%).
U.S. snacks and drinks giant Pepsico climbed 4.18% following posting better-than-expected Q3 revenue, helped by price increases, and raised its full-year growth forecast .
The Moderna laboratory soared 8.28% following forging a partnership with the German group Merck to develop and market a messenger RNA vaccine for patients at high risk of recurrence of skin cancer.
Cruise lines stocks jumped in concert following a series of better ratings from analysts, whether Norwegian Cruise (+11.61%), Royal Caribbean (+11.48%) or Carnival (+10 .09%) while these shares had fallen significantly in recent weeks.
Uber (+5.35%) and Lyft (+5.59%) have largely recovered following being beaten the day before in the wake of a plan by the US administration to change the status of workers as employees of the gig economy.
© 2022 AFP
