At 4:10 p.m., the Dow Jones was up 0.33%, the Nasdaq was down 0.24%, and the S&P 500 was up 0.22%.
The New York Stock Exchange moved in dispersed order Thursday and tried to consolidate the rebound started the day before, relying on the prospect of new Russian-Ukrainian talks, the moderate tone of the Fed and cheap purchases.
At around 15:10 GMT, the Dow Jones was up 0.33%, the Nasdaq was down 0.24%, and the S&P 500 was up 0.22%.
Even if the war in Ukraine is intensifying, with the capture of Kherson and the siege of Mariupol, investors were trying to find arguments here and there to prolong the rebound that began on Wednesday.
The prospect of another round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian envoys later in the day was seen as a positive development, according to Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
For Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities, the slight decline in oil prices also offered respite to the market following several days of a wild ascent.
Wall Street also noted some good US macroeconomic indicators, namely the 6.6% increase in productivity (annual rate) in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the further decline in weekly jobless claims.
The operators were also preparing to follow a new hearing of the chairman of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, this time before the banking committee of the Senate, following a first appearance before a committee of the House of Representatives the day before.
On Wednesday, the leader issued a cautious message, giving investors “the reassuring conviction that the Fed will not be as aggressive (in its monetary tightening) as feared” previously, underlined Patrick O’Hare.
Much of the semblance of momentum in the New York market was due to bargain shopping, according to a note from Yardeni Research.
The latter noted that the relationship between investors seeing the market go up (“bullish”) and those anticipating a fall (“bearish”) had become favorable to sellers at the beginning of the week, which generally indicates that the stock market has reached a bottom and is ready to bounce back.
After a sharp decline on Wednesday, the VIX index, which measures market volatility, began a new, more moderate decline.
Unlike the day before, which had seen a large movement of many values, the variations were modest, only Walmart (+ 1.94% to 138.80 dollars) doing well in the Dow Jones.
On the Nasdaq side, Apple continued its rise (+0.63% to 167.61 dollars), following setting Wednesday for March 8 the presentation of what should be, according to several American media, a 5G iPhone model less expensive than those of its classic range.
The Nasdaq index was however pulled down by many technology stocks, in particular semiconductor manufacturers Intel (-1.97%) or AMD (-2.03%) and memory card specialist Micron (- 2.92%).
Elsewhere, the offshore data storage company (cloud) Snowflake stalled (-15.60% to 223.39 dollars) following posting a heavy quarterly loss while analysts expected a small profit. The group also expects sales to be significantly below market expectations for the first quarter.
The chain of electronics stores Best Buy was hailed (+9.35% to 110.27 dollars), following the publication of a net profit above expectations, even if the turnover came out below forecasts .
The Ralph Lauren house fell (-2.20% to 125.65 dollars), the day following the revelation of the upcoming departure of its sales manager, dismissed for actions “in violation” with the company’s internal regulations, without more precision.
