(New York) The last session of the year started very timidly in the green on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, almost stable, where the Dow Jones is trading at a record level while the S&P 500 is also close to a historic high.
Around 11 a.m., the Dow Jones index gained only 0.01%. The technology-dominated NASDAQ gained 0.06%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.07%.
The day before, the Dow Jones index had gained 0.14%, reaching a new high of 37,710.10 points, the second of the week.
The S&P 500 gained 0.04%, to 4,783.35 points, not far from its January 2022 record. The NASDAQ lost 0.03%, closing at 15,095.14 points.
All three indexes are expected to end a ninth straight week in positive territory.
“The last trading day of the year is here and, so far, it looks nothing like the last nine weeks of the year,” when if it were similar, stocks would be up sharply, he said. commented Patrick O’Hare, analyst at Briefing.com.
All eyes will be on the broader S&P 500 index and “its ability to close 2023 at a new record,” he stressed.
“What a wonderful conclusion it would be to this end-of-year celebration! It came close on Thursday reaching 4793.30 at its intraday high, but it could not reach the record closing level of 4796.56 reached on January 3, 2022,” the analyst added.
In an end-of-year market with very low volume, which accentuates variations, and with little economic news, investors were a little cooled half an hour after the opening with the publication of the PMI index. activity in the highly industrialized Chicago region.
This index fell in December to 46.9, compared to 55.8 the previous month.
This decline should not, however, derail the stock market indices from their brilliant annual trajectory: the Dow Jones is heading towards an increase of 13.8% over the year and the S&P 500 towards an increase of 24.6%.
The NASDAQ, for its part, with the “Magnificent Seven” – the mega-caps of technology, such as Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia – soared by 44.2%. The year 2023 should end as the best since 2003 for this predominantly technological index.
On the bond market, ten-year yields tightened slightly to 3.87%, compared to 3.84% the day before.
Alphabet’s stock paid little attention (-0.20%) to the agreement reached by Google to settle a dispute over the protection of privacy which could have cost it $5 billion. The amount of the out-of-court settlement was not disclosed.
Boeing recovered by 0.24% after finishing in decline the day before. The aircraft manufacturer has asked airlines that own the 737 MAX, its flagship plane, to carry out checks because of a risk of a “loose bolt” on the rudder control system, the US Air Transport Agency announced on Thursday. civil aviation (FAA).
The microprocessor and semiconductor sector progressed significantly with AMD (+1.23%) and Nvidia (+0.60%).
The Chinese internet giant NetEase, which has securities listed on Wall Street, continued to grow for the third session in a row (+3.42% to $92.34), still benefiting from new, more positive regulations for the video games sector in China.