(New York) The New York Stock Exchange finished narrowly in the green on Monday, remaining positive after a weekly gain and at the start of a crucial week for monetary policy and markets.
The Dow Jones index gained 0.38% to 38,386.09 points, the technology-dominated NASDAQ advanced 0.35% to 15,983.08 points and the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.32 % at 5116.17 points.
Last week was “a good week for the stock market. In fact, this was the best week for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ since November,” noted Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
The S&P 500 posted a weekly gain of 2.7%. The NASDAQ rose 4.2% and the Dow Jones rose 0.7% for the week.
On Monday, the star of Wall Street was Tesla stock.
The title of the electric car manufacturer soared 15.31% to $194.05 to its highest level in two months. This good performance comes at a time when, until last week, Tesla had been battered on the stock market since the start of the year, with the stock having lost more than 40%.
This enthusiastic reception from brokers follows a whirlwind trip by Elon Musk to Beijing this weekend where he met Prime Minister Li Qiang and obtained a green light from the Chinese authorities regarding the security of data embedded in his vehicles.
The manufacturer is also in the process of obtaining approval for the use of its “Full Self Driving” functionality thanks to a partnership with local internet giant Baidu for maps and navigation.
“This is a key turning point for Musk and also for Beijing, at a time when Tesla faces massive domestic electric vehicle competition in China and weaker demand,” commented Dan Ives of Wedbush.
On the macroeconomic front, the week will be dominated by the monetary meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed) which will publish a press release on Wednesday.
The market does not expect a rate cut given the persistence of inflation last month (+2.7% over twelve months, according to the PCE index).
This press release “will be dissected to discern changes in language when, according to futures products, there is a 97% probability that the Fed will keep rates at this level,” commented Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth management.
“Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference will be closely watched for any clues indicating when the Fed will begin its rate cut cycle,” the analyst further indicated.
Investors will also be watching for official employment figures for April on Friday.
On the bond market, ten-year rates lost ground to 4.62% instead of 4.66%.
The week will also be busy with corporate results, particularly in the tech sector with Amazon (+0.75%) expected on Tuesday and Apple (+2.48%) expected on Thursday after the markets close.
Meta shares (Facebook, Instagram) continued to fall (-2.41%) on a downward slope since the announcement of its results on Thursday.
Even though the first quarter accounts exceeded expectations with a 27% jump in turnover, investors were cooled by the volume of investments announced in AI, up to $40 billion.
In the wake of a decline in bitcoin (-1.03% around 4:10 p.m. Eastern time) the cryptocurrency miner Riot Platform lost 7.12% and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase lost 7 .68%.
Among other results, the pizza seller Domino’s (+5.62% to $527.12) was appreciated after the announcement of sales up 22% for the first three months of the year, boosted by deliveries to the American market.
The personal finance platform Sofi Technologies was sanctioned (-10.48% to $7.05) despite quarterly results better than expected. But its CEO Anthony Noto reported that demand for financing “was much lower than it could be if credit rates were 200 to 300 basis points lower.”
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