Wall Street opens in disorder, caution dominates

Opening

Wall Street opens in disorder, caution dominates

published the 26/08/2021

PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange is in disarray on Thursday as contrasting economic indicators and statements by Federal Reserve members in favor of tightening monetary policy fuel investor caution on the eve of the very speech. expected from Fed Chairman Jackson Holter.

A few minutes after the opening, the Dow Jones index gained 51.57 points, or 0.15%, 35,457.07 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500, larger, fell by 0.09% 4,492.32 points.

The Nasdaq Composite ced 0.05% 15,034,965 points.

The dollar index (+ 0.23%), which measures the variations of the American currency against other benchmark currencies, has risen in reaction to the comments of the president of the Fed of Saint-Louis, James Bullard, according to which the the US central bank is moving towards a plan to reduce its $ 120 billion in monthly asset purchases.

His Kansas City counterpart, Esther George, said earlier in the day that the Fed should start ‘tapering’ “sooner rather than later”, given the expected continuation of job gains and growth. economical.

In this context, the speech by the president of the institution, Jerome Powell, on Friday at the economic symposium in Jackson Hole will be followed with even more attention by the market to potentially obtain more details on the Fed’s strategy in terms of monetary policy.

As for the day’s indicators, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States was revised up 6.6% at an annualized rate in the second quarter, exceeding its peak prior to the health crisis.

At the same time, weekly jobless claims increased slightly more than expected last week in the US, 353,000.

At individual values, Salesforce is up 4.89% after posting better-than-expected quarterly results and says demand for its cloud-based services will remain strong in the third quarter thanks to work.

Cosmetics group Coty jumped 15.92% after saying it expected its annual sales to return to growth for the first time in at least three years.

On the decline, Western Digital, a specialist in data storage, cde 1.31% after information concerning advanced discussions on a possible merger of 20 billion dollars (17 billion euros) with the Japanese manufacturer of semiconductors Kioxia Holdings.

Abercrombie & Fitch fell 13.78% as the Prt – porter group reported lower than expected quarterly sales due to lower online sales.

(Laetitia Volga, said by Bertrand Boucey)