(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Wednesday after the US congressional election failed to see the expected Republican wave, while investors awaited inflation figures on Thursday.
Updated yesterday at 5:43 p.m.
The Dow Jones index fell 1.95% to 32,513.94 points, the tech-dominated NASDAQ fell 2.48% to 10,353.17 points and the S&P 500 was down at 3,748.57 points. of 2.08%.
Disappointing corporate results, a debacle in the cryptocurrency universe, a new gauge of US inflation expected on Thursday and finally the congressional elections, the outcome of which is still uncertain, have cooled brokers.
“Stocks traded lower as the final midterm election results continue to be tabulated and congressional scrutiny remains uncertain,” Schwab analysts summed up.
The market fell “because we don’t have all the results yet, so these elections were a pretext for profit taking” after several days of increases for the New York Stock Exchange, explained for his part Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
All the results of the Congressional elections were indeed not yet known. The Republican opposition should dominate the House of Representatives, but not to the extent that was expected, the Republican wave having not taken place. As for the Senate, four seats are still uncertain.
“Whatever the outcome, the margins will be very narrow and we are heading towards a paralysis of the government anyway,” added Peter Cardillo. Few political changes are therefore to be expected, whether in the regulations of the banking or energy sectors, for example, or the tax code, which is not a priori to displease the financial markets.
Volatility of cryptocurrencies
Beyond profit taking, the stock market was shaken by the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies.
The Binance trading platform, which announced on Tuesday evening the hasty acquisition of its rival FTX to support it in liquidity problems, abruptly abandoned the operation the next day.
Binance mentions possible mismanagement of funds and the likelihood of an investigation by US authorities.
Bitcoin fell 10.21% to $16,789, a new low since November 2020.
Players in the cryptocurrency space have suffered. The title of the Coinbase trading platform lost 9.54% to 45.98 dollars.
The popular brokerage app Robinhood dropped 13.76% after already plunging 19% the previous day.
The disappointing results of Walt Disney, which saw its Disney + streaming service double its operating loss in the third quarter despite an increase in its subscribers, caused the action of the entertainment group to plunge (-13.16% to 86 $.75).
Its competitors in streaming also fell like Netflix (-3.34%) or Roku (-5.92%).
Tesla shares fell 7.17% to $177.59 after Elon Musk announced that he had sold some $4 million worth of shares in the automaker, which is to fund the social network’s takeover at a high price. Twitter.
All 11 S&P sectors ended heavily in the red, led by energy (-4.88%) while crude prices fell sharply, followed by the consumer discretionary sector (- 3.12%), information technology (-2.65%) and communication services (-1.90%).
Meta (Facebook) on the other hand was welcomed by investors, climbing 5.18% to 101.47 dollars while Mark Zuckerberg’s group announced the loss of 11,000 jobs, or some 13% of its workforce.
Thursday investors were waiting for US inflation figures for October. Analysts are still forecasting a monthly rise in the CPI index of 0.5% after +0.6% in September.
The Toronto Stock Exchange closed Wednesday down more than 300 points, dragged down by a slide of more than 4% in the energy sector and losses in most other sectors, while the major US indices also retreated.
The Toronto floor’s S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 316.06 points to end the day at 19,344.25 points.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 74.18 cents US, down from 74.40 cents US on Tuesday.
On the New York Commodities Exchange, crude oil fell US$3.08 to US$85.83 a barrel, while natural gas fell 27 cents US to US$5.87 a million. of BTUs.
The price of gold cleared US$2.30 to US$1,713.70 an ounce and that of copper rose 2 cents US to US$3.70 a pound.
With The Canadian Press