(New York) The New York Stock Exchange began the week in decline on Monday, after records, cooled by tension on bond rates and judging by another burst of corporate results.
The Dow Jones index and the S&P 500 fell 0.58% and 0.28% respectively around 10 a.m. (Eastern time), after records Friday at 38,654.42 points and 4958.61 points.
The NASDAQ, driven on Friday by an extraordinary rise in Meta (+20%), fell by 0.38%.
Over the week, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 gained 1.4% each and the NASDAQ rose 1%.
On Sunday Jerome Powell, president of the American central bank (Fed), repeated in an interview on the CBS show “60 Minutes” that a rate cut was not imminent.
He reiterated that it was “unlikely” that the Fed would have enough “confidence” in falling inflation by March, the date of the next meeting, to ease monetary policy.
The last investors who still believed in a Fed rate cut next month seemed to finally abandon this position, which pushed bond yields higher.
There were only 15% left on Monday to think that a reduction in the cost of money is still possible in March compared to 46% last week and another 20% on Friday, according to the measurement tool on the futures markets of CME Group.
Yields on ten-year Treasury bills, which move inversely to bond prices, rose to 4.15% from 4.02% at the last close.
“The market is taking a few steps back this morning as investors weigh the amplification of valuations, the tension in bond yields and the emerging skepticism about the continuation of an upward trend for the market”, summarized Patrick O’Hare from Briefing.com.
Meta returned almost 3% after skyrocketing on Friday (+20.32% to $474.99) inflating the market capitalization of Mark Zuckerberg’s group by more than $200 billion in one session good results for Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp .
Boeing nosedived (-2.33%), the aircraft manufacturer facing new problems with its 737 MAX. This time, its supplier informed it of a conformity problem with the fuselages of its flagship model which should require intervention on around fifty examples not yet delivered.
Boeing has been going through a rough patch for several months, with several production problems revealed on the 737 which have already led to delivery delays.
The results season also continued with a new round of announcements.
McDonald’s stock was punished, losing almost 3%, after contrasting results in the fourth quarter. The international turnover of the fast food giant having been affected by the war in the Middle East after calls for a boycott.
Sales narrowly missed analysts’ expectations, coming in at $6.41 billion when the consensus was for $6.45 billion. They increased by 8% over one year.
Boeing and McDonald’s are both part of the Dow, which weighed on the index.
The cosmetics group Estée Lauder was praised (+15%) after announcing the elimination of 3,000 jobs following declining results for the period from October to December, due to a decline in winds in Asia.
Caterpillar gained 3% – a record for the construction equipment group’s action – after better-than-expected fourth-quarter profits and annual sales up 13%.