The New York Stock Exchange ended at half mast on Wednesday after a hesitant session in which rates rose in a sparse market before the end of a very gloomy 2022 for the stock markets.
The Dow Jones index dropped 1.10% to 32,875.71 points; the technology-dominated Nasdaq lost 1.35% to 10,213.29 points; the broader S&P 500 index fell 1.20%, falling back below 3800 points to 3783.22 points.
The fall in shares which accelerated at the end of the session took place “in a context of very light exchanges for this dismal end of the year”, summed up the analysts at Schwab.
Yields on 10-year Treasury bills rose a little, to 3.87% from 3.84% the day before, which is often at the expense of share prices.
“We are in a bear market, and the big lesson of 2022 is that we had to respect the risks,” commented Adam Sarhan, of 50 Park Investment.
“We are facing several macroeconomic problems [l’inflation, la guerre en Ukraine, les hausses de taux de la Fed] which weighed on stocks, and these problems still remain to be solved, added the specialist. But the good news is that this significant reduction in stock valuations can open the door to the next bull market, he said. »
The 50 Park Investment analyst points out, however, that historically, during the last major stock market depressions — in 2000-2002 with the bursting of the Internet bubble and in 2008-2009 with the bursting of the real estate bubble — the fund had no been affected only in March.
“We have not yet seen the capitulation of Wall Street, this movement of forced sales. We have seen it in the crypto sector, but not yet on the stock market, ”warned the analyst.
Caution on China
Among the good news, however, the reopening of China, with the lifting of health restrictions, could revive demand. But in all markets, from commodities to equities to currencies, investors remain cautious about the pace of activity in China.
Given the spread of COVID-19 in the country, Beijing’s rapid abandonment of the “zero COVID” policy is causing concern abroad.
On the side, in a very sluggish market, which amplifies the variations, Tesla, which plunged 11.4% on Tuesday and which has lost 69% since the start of 2022, raised its head on Wednesday by advancing 3.31% at $112.71.
The action of the electric vehicle manufacturer led by Elon Musk shows one of the worst performances of the year within the S&P 500, after the electrical equipment company Generac (-74% since the beginning of the year) and Match Group dating app (-70%).
Other Nasdaq big names; Apple lost 3.07% and Amazon 1.47%.
All sectors of the S & P 500 ended in the red, energy in the lead with a decline of 2.22%.
The situation has hardly improved for the airline Southwest Airlines, which experienced a catastrophic long Christmas weekend, forced to cancel thousands of flights daily for five days, while a blizzard of historic magnitude s fell over much of the United States. The action still dropped 5.16% to 32.19 dollars after plunging almost 6% the day before.
The other airlines were also sanctioned, such as Delta Air Lines (-2.77%), United (-2.38%) or the low-cost airline JetBlue (-2.98%).