(New York) The New York Stock Exchange indices started in the green on the penultimate session of the year on Thursday, on the verge of a record for the broad S&P 500 index, the most representative of the American market .
Around 10:20 a.m. (Eastern time), the Dow Jones index advanced 0.19%, the technology-dominated NASDAQ gained 0.17%. The S&P 500, which is only half a percentage point from its January 2022 record of 4,796.56 points, gained 0.15%.
The day before, the Dow Jones had gained 0.30% to 37,656.52 points, the NASDAQ had advanced 0.16% to 15,099.18 points and the S&P 500 had nibbled 0.14%, ending at 4781.58 points.
With just two sessions to go before the end of the year and in a low-volume market, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 are up 13% and 24% respectively over the year.
The NASDAQ, featuring the “Magnificent Seven” – tech mega-caps like Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia – soared 44%. 2023 could be the best year since 2003 for the tech-heavy index.
The three indices are also on track to end a ninth straight week in positive territory.
“It feels like there’s a magnetic force pulling the S&P 500 toward a record high, but it’s not there yet. It is not impossible that we will achieve this today,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
In a week poor in economic data, weekly jobless claims rose for the second week in a row.
They increased from 12,000 to 218,000, more than expected but without signaling a major impact on the unemployment rate.
“The main takeaway from the report is that it is not going to shake up the market perception that the labor market remains in good shape overall,” noted Patrick O’Hare.
“This means that the level of unemployment claims is not yet seen as a threat to the soft landing hypothesis,” he added.
The Labor Department will release official employment figures for December on January 5.
On the bond market, where transactions were few, the yield on 2-year bonds, which had fallen sharply on Wednesday, was up to 4.27% from 4.24%, and the yield on 10-year bonds was also up to 3.82% from 3.79%.
On the value side, most of the “Magnificent Seven” carried the timid momentum of the market including Apple (+0.70%), Tesla (+1.04%), Meta (+0.35%) , Microsoft (+0.32%) and Nvidia (+0.32%). Amazon and Alphabet were down slightly (-0.12%).
Altice-USA, the subsidiary of Altice, a highly indebted French cable operator and telecommunications group, saw its shares soar by 14% to $3.47.
Press information suggested an interest from French billionaire Xavier Niel (Iliad technology group) in the Portuguese subsidiary of Patrick Drahi’s group.
The securities listed on Wall Street of Chinese internet and online gaming giants NetEase rebounded (3.87% to $91) after having suffered in recent sessions following new regulations issued by the authorities.
But this week, around a hundred video games were finally authorized for distribution and the authorities indicated that they would review the first version of their regulations. Tencent, another Chinese internet heavyweight, also gained ground (+2.38% to $37.51).