(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended at half mast on Monday in the face of the risks presented by a very busy economic week, between a salvo of corporate results, particularly in technology, and a monetary decision by the Fed.
The Dow Jones index fell 0.77% to 33,717.09 points, the tech-heavy NASDAQ lost 1.96% to 11,393.81 points and the broader S&P 500 index dropped 1.30 % at 4017.77 points.
A host of corporate results will punctuate the week with, as of Tuesday, Spotify, General Motors, McDonald’s, UPS and Pfizer. Those of the tech mega-caps, like Meta, are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, after the close for Apple, Amazon and Alphabet. With the exception of Amazon, which lost only 1.65% on Monday, the other technology majors lost between 2% and 3%.
So far, “70% of the companies that have published their accounts have reported better than expected results, but their forecasts for the future are dismal and those of analysts are also greatly reduced”, summarized for AFP Hugh Johnson of the economic analysis firm Hugh Johnson Economics.
This concern about the health of companies in the short term goes hand in hand, he said, “with the fear that the economy will contract or fail to land softly in the first or second quarter”, added Mr. Johnson.
For Karl Haeling of LBBW, this week full of major announcements, especially in the technology sector, is “one of the busiest of the year in this area with 109 of the 500 companies of the S&P” publishing their quarterly accounts during this week. “risky”.
Investors “want to get out of their long positions because they fear unpleasant surprises or simply the tribulations of a volatile market,” Haeling pointed out.
The market, which had started the session on a lower decline than at the close, widened its losses with the announcement of the small rebound in Spanish inflation in January while investors expected a decline, also estimated the LBBW analyst.
The publication of this price increase in Spain, at 5.8% over one year in January, pushed bond rates up. “It has raised concerns that the European Central Bank,” which meets on Thursday, “is raising rates by 50 basis points not just this week, but also in March,” Haeling reported.
On the bond market, rates on 10-year Treasury bills rose to 3.54% against 3.50% at the previous close.
The US central bank (Fed), which will make a monetary decision on Wednesday, is expected to slow the scale of its rate hike to 0.25%, “a decision already priced in by the market,” according to Johnson.
On the stock market, almost all of the eleven S&P sectors fell into the red, starting with energy (-2.29%), information technology (-1.94%) and services. communications (-1.80%).
Electric vehicle maker Lucid tumbled 8.70% to $11.75, after climbing sharply last week on rumors that a Saudi Arabian investment fund was considering a stake in the company. the society.
Tesla fell 6.32% to $166.66, after surging last week following reports of record fourth-quarter profits.
Semiconductors also melted, such as Nvidia (-5.91%), AMD (-3.91%) or Qualcomm (-1.33%).
Shares of Chinese giant Alibaba, listed on Wall Street, fell 6.07% to $111.20. According to press reports, the group denied speculation that it intended to move its headquarters to Singapore, while it is currently based in Hangzhou in China’s Zhejiang province.
The highly speculative stock of movie theater group AMC fell 9.07% to $5.01 as management offered shareholders a 10-for-one stock split, a way to increase the stock price.
Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange lost nearly 150 points on Monday, victim of widespread losses, while the major American indices also gave back part of the gains of last week.
The Toronto floor’s S&P/TSX Composite Index erased 142.37 points to close with 20,572.11 points.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 74.72 cents US, down from 75.11 cents US on Friday.