(New York) The New York Stock Exchange, which moved modestly in the green during the session, finally took a break on Thursday ending in the last minutes, after records for the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 the day before.
According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index dropped 0.25% to 36,398.08 points, after six consecutive sessions of increase.
The S&P 500 fell 0.30% to 4,778.73 points and the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell 0.16% to 15,741.56 points.
In the market between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the low volumes of trade amplified the movements of the indices, noted analysts.
Despite the slight decline on Thursday, the end of the year week so far respects the stock market tradition of the “Santa Claus Bond” (Santa Claus rally).
She wants the market to have been up 80% of the time for 80 years in the last calendar week.
Over the year so far, the flagship index has climbed 19.2%, the S&P 500 has jumped 27.7% and the NASDAQ by 22.7%.
“Obviously 2021 has been a great year for stocks,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
Thursday, “the macroeconomic news was good”, added the analyst which supported the market in session.
“The activity index for the Chicago area took two points and above all there was a sharp drop in jobless claims over four weeks,” the lowest recorded in 50 years, said Peter Cardillo, which is favorable to the labor market and the economy.
In general, “the markets are showing a certain resilience in the face of expectations of a Fed rate hike and in the face of persistent inflationary pressures, while focusing on the lower severity of the Omicron variant rather than on its high. transmissibility, ”Schwab analysts said.
Bond yields eased somewhat to 1.50% from 1.54% the day before for 10-year Treasuries in a very thin market.
The titles of the American laboratory Biogen (-7.09%, 240 dollars), specializing in particular in neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, lost part of the ground gained the day before after the Korean group Samsung denied, in an official document in Korea according to the press, to be in negotiations for the acquisition of Biogen.
Wednesday Biogen had climbed 9.5% on press information valuing the group at $ 42 billion in this operation.
The title of Teva Pharmaceutical, listed in New York, dropped 6.29% to 7.90 dollars after the American subsidiary of the Israeli group was found responsible by a jury in the opioid crisis in New York State. The laboratory has indicated that it wants to appeal.
Shares of New York-based airline JetBlue fell 0.97% to $ 14.24 after announcing it was canceling 1,280 flights until January 13 due to infected personnel.
Memory card maker Micron Technology fell 2.97% to $ 93.89 after reporting a production delay at its Xi’an plant in China due to containment measures.
Tesla shed 1.46% to $ 1,070.34 after nearly half a million Model 3 and Model S were recalled in the United States over problems with vehicle trunks.
Victims of the spread of the Omicron variant, cruise passengers plunged further lower after U.S. health officials (CDC) recommended avoiding cruises, including for those vaccinated. Royal Caribbean dropped 1.11%, Norwegian Cruise 2.59% and Carnival dropped 1.25%.
S & P / TSX index drops 50.01 points
The main Canadian stock index fell Thursday after experiencing five consecutive increases.
The S & P / TSX index lost 50.01 points to 21,294.64. Despite this drop, it has jumped by more than 600 since the start of December.
Historically, the stock markets have tended to soar during the last week of December and the first days of January. Some have dubbed this phenomenon “the rallying of Santa Claus”.
According to Mona Mahajan of the Edward Jones firm, North American equity markets performed remarkably in December, despite the headwinds they were facing.
“The markets had to climb some big hurdles of concern. First, there is the surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, ”she said, noting that investors seem increasingly convinced that this wave will not hurt the economy as much as it does. the previous ones.
Mahajan believes markets are already reacting to the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise its policy rate in 2022.
“The Bank of Canada will follow the same path early next year, at least in the first half of the year. It is interesting that the markets were still able to rally around Santa Claus, she said. The volume of transactions is of course low, but we should end the year with gains easily exceeding ten points. “
She cautions investors that they should not expect the S & P / TSX Index to make 20% gains in 2022. “We will surely recommend that investors keep investing. However, it should be kept in mind that there will be more instability and the profit picture will be different from that of this year. “
On the New York Commodities Exchange, the price of crude oil rose US $ 0.43 to US $ 76.61 per barrel, while that of natural gas retreated from US $ 0.26 to $ 3.44 US per million BTUs.
The price of gold gained US $ 8.30 to US $ 1,814.10 an ounce and that of copper lost two US cents to US $ 4.39 per pound.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 78.27 cents US, up from 78.10 cents US the previous day.
The Canadian Press