(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Tuesday, timid before a new speech by the president of the American central bank (Fed) Jerome Powell, whose market is waiting for a signal concerning a possible monetary tightening more marked than expected .
Around 10 a.m. (Eastern time), the Dow Jones fell 0.28%, the NASDAQ index fell 0.05% and the broader S&P 500 index lost 0.17%.
After two negative sessions in a row, Wall Street continues to digest the surprise of the monthly employment figures, which showed Friday that the American economy was still very vigorous, far from the pronounced deceleration predicted for months.
Operators “are trying to form an opinion on this report, to know if it is an anomaly or indicative of a trend in the trajectory of the economy”, commented Quincy Krosby, of LPL Financial.
Despite two negative sessions on Friday and Monday, “the consolidation was moderate, not aggressive,” noted the analyst, which testifies to a certain solidity in the equity markets.
“The market has been a little concerned in recent sessions about the possibility that the Fed will raise its rates more than expected and keep them at a high level for longer” than expected, explained in a note Patrick O ‘Hare, from Briefing.com.
While it has been favoring for several weeks the scenario of a single additional rate hike of a quarter point by the summer, the New York market is now betting on two successive increases and does not exclude the possibility of a third.
Investors have their sights set on Washington, where Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to give a 12 p.m. EST town hall meeting to David Rubenstein, chairman of the Economic Club and the Carlyle investment firm .
“The market will respond to it as if it were a press conference after a Fed meeting,” announced Quincy Krosby.
His last press briefing dates back barely a week, but the central banker has indeed not spoken since the publication of the employment report.
Having risen sharply since Friday, bond rates stabilized on Tuesday before his intervention. The yield on 10-year US government bonds stood at 3.65%, against 3.63% the day before closing.
The Oak Street Health network jumped (+31.39% to 34.11 dollars) thanks to information from the Wall Street Journal, according to which discussions are underway with the pharmacy chain CVS (+0.28%) which could soon make an offer valuing the group at around 10.5 billion dollars.
The video game publisher Activision Blizzard advanced (+4.78% to 75.00 dollars), with results that exceeded forecasts, marked by the good performance of its flagship titles such as “Call of Duty”, “Overwatch” or ” Diablo”.
The Hertz vehicle rental company was sought after (+ 7.30% to 18.97 dollars) after having published a net profit above expectations and having reported a still strong demand at the start of the year, driven by the revival of tourism .
The social network Pinterest (-6.51% to 26.08 dollars) was penalized by a quarterly turnover lower than analysts’ projections and by forecasts deemed prudent.
The chain of home goods stores Bed Bath & Beyond unscrewed (-41.80% to 3.41 dollars) after having unveiled a capital increase of one billion dollars, intended to avoid its bankruptcy.
The operator of AMC cinemas (-5.73% to 6.41 dollars) did not benefit from the announcement of a new pricing policy, which will vary the price of the ticket depending on the placement in the room.