Published on : 29/04/2022 – 16:42
New York (AFP) – The New York Stock Exchange started in the red on Friday its last session of April, the Nasdaq risking at this rate to accuse its worst month since the start of the pandemic as the Fed prepares to raise rates next week.
Around 2:15 p.m., the Dow Jones lost 0.34%, the Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, dropped 0.55% and the S&P 500 0.75%.
The publication of an improvement for April in the consumer confidence indicator in the United States, half an hour following the opening, made it possible to reduce the losses at the start of the session.
Consumer confidence improved significantly to 65.2 points (+9.8%) even if it remains at a very low level, according to the final estimate of the University of Michigan survey.
The day before, boosted by corporate results, Wall Street had posted a rebound.
The Dow Jones index had gained 1.85% to 33,916.39 points. The Nasdaq had climbed 3.06% to 12,871.53 points. The S&P 500 rose 2.47% to 4,287.50 points.
“US equities are under some pressure in the wake of the strong rally the day before,” said Friday analysts at Schwab.
“A plethora of headwinds remain, the main ones being an expected aggressive tightening cycle from the Fed, lockdowns in China, lingering inflationary pressures, rising bond yields and the recent surge in the US dollar,” it said. they.
Amazon, one of the largest capitalizations of the Nasdaq, lost a lot of weight (-12.25% to 2,537 dollars) while Jeff Bezos’ group posted its first quarterly deficit since 2015.
This is mainly due to a loss on investments in the electric car manufacturer Rivian, but the e-commerce giant is also seeing its sales suffer from inflation and has reduced its forecasts for the next quarter.
Facebook (Meta), which ended Thursday with a jump of 17% following better-than-expected profits and good user performance, lost some ground (-1.45%). At $193, the share’s value remains a third below its peak at the end of 2021.
Apple, which announced record iPhone sales for this time of year following the close on Thursday but fears that lockdowns in China and the suspension of its activities in Russia will weigh on its results going forward, gained 0, 78%.
The busiest week of the corporate earnings season ended with the oil companies in particular.
The American oil giant ExxonMobil (-1% to 86 dollars) was penalized despite a jump in its turnover and its quarterly profits. Analysts expected better and ExxonMobil also had to pass a large charge related to its withdrawal from Russia.
Another beneficiary of the war in Ukraine, while oil prices soar, Chevron posted a net result multiplied by four over one year. Its title, however, dropped 0.78% to 160 dollars.
Investors’ eyes were also on next week’s meeting with the interest rate hike which seems programmed by the American Central Bank (Fed) on Wednesday to curb inflation.
The markets are expecting an increase of half a percentage point (0.50%) in key interest rates.
The PCE inflation index for March published on Friday continued to rise in March, rising 6.6% over one year and 0.9% over one month.
This indicator, the Fed’s preferred measure for gauging inflation, thus reached a 40-year high.
On the positive side, consumer spending rose 1.1%, a rise partly due to inflation. Their incomes also increased, but to a lesser extent (+0.5%).
On the bond market, yields on 10-year Treasury bills stretched a little to 2.87% once morest 2.82% the day before.
© 2022 AFP
