(New York) The New York Stock Exchange started in the green on Wednesday, reinforced by signs of cooling in the job market in the United States, which is positive in the Fed’s fight against inflation.
The Dow Jones index advanced 0.31%, the technology-dominated NASDAQ rose 0.46% and the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.39% around 10:20 a.m. (Eastern time).
Tuesday for a second session of loss, the Dow Jones index lost 0.22% to 36,124.56 points. The NASDAQ gained 0.31% to 14,229.91 points and the S&P 500 stagnated (-0.06%) at 4567.18 points.
Before the publication of official employment figures for November in the United States, expected on Friday, the ADP/Stanford Lab survey counted 103,000 new hires in the private sector, much less than expected by analysts (127,000). .
In addition, the increase in wages in the private sector was the slowest in two years (+5.6% on an annual basis).
“The job market is showing signs of slowing, with job creation falling and the unemployment rate rising slightly. We anticipate a relaxation of labor market conditions, under the effect of the restrictive policy of the Federal Reserve (Fed), commented the chief economist for HFE, Rubeela Farooqi.
To these data, we must add a sharp upward revision in productivity in the third quarter (+5.2%) accompanied by a clear drop in the unit cost of employment, which fell by 1.2%.
“This link is important between increased productivity and lower unit labor costs,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
“Each of them is moving in the right direction with respect to the Federal Reserve’s goals, which means rates should continue to move in the right direction for the market,” the analyst added.
Bond yields continued to slide to 4.14% from 4.16% the day before, a three-month low.
On the value side, Tesla gained 2.60%. After the launch of his electric Cybertruck, Tesla boss Elon Musk spoke on Tuesday of the production of a smaller and cheaper vehicle, adding that the brand was already “advanced” in the design of this model.
The online commerce platform Shopify lost 2.50% after a day of investor information, with some judging that the stock has risen very strongly since the start of the year.
Among the S&P sectors, the industrial sector posted the largest increase in trade (+1.02%) with good performances from Caterpillar (+2.03%) and Deere (+2.37%).
Banks were well placed such as Bank of America (+2.40%), Citigroup (+4.30%) and Goldman Sachs (+1.18%).
The Real Estate Bankers Association said loan applications rose 2.8% last week for home purchases, in the wake of falling bond yields.
The online brokerage platform Robinhood soared 6% while cryptoassets are on the rise, particularly bitcoin which, on Wednesday, passed the threshold of $44,000, a new high since April 2022.
The energy sector was one of the market’s laggards, weighed down by a further drop in crude prices, with a barrel of Texan WTI oil barely remaining above $70. ExxonMobil fell 0.27% despite announcing a plan to increase its share buybacks.