The New York Stock Exchange ended cautiously higher on Tuesday, supported by slowing US inflation just on the eve of a Fed interest rate decision.
After starting with a bang at the open following the publication of a better than expected inflation figure, the indices ended on a more moderate rise.
The Dow Jones Index gained 0.30% to 34,108.64 points, the Nasdaq 1.01% to 11,256.81 points and the S&P 500 rose 0.73% to 4,019.65 points.
Inflation in the United States has slowed more than expected: it stood at 7.1% over one year in November, against 7.7% in October, according to the CPI index published by the American government. Analysts expected 7.3%.
This is the lowest increase in consumer prices since December 2021.
The stock market initially surged, driven by enthusiasm from the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which had started up more than 3%.
This momentum then dried up “notably because Friday will be a day of the four witches”, that is to say the last session of the year which sees the expiration of many stock market contracts which always leads to exuberant volatility. , underlined Peter Cardillo, of Spartan Capital.
“On Wednesday, we are also awaiting the decision of the Federal Reserve and this has generated a lot of profit taking”, assured the analyst again.
Operators are indeed almost certain now that the Fed, which will make its monetary decision at 7 p.m. GMT on Wednesday, will increase its rates by only half a percentage point instead of the three-quarters of a point struck four times in a row on overnight interest rates.
They should therefore go to a level between 4.25% and 4.50%.
On the bond market, yields on 10-year Treasury bills fell to 3.50% from 3.61% the day before and the dollar nosedived. Around 9 p.m. GMT, it dropped 0.87% against the euro at 1.0629 dollars for one euro.
“Overall it was a positive session for the stock market,” Cardillo said.
Two-thirds of the members of the Dow concluded in the green and the broader S&P 500 index, the most representative of the American market, finished above 4,000 points. “This means that the rebound at the end of the year is still relevant,” assured the Spartan Capital analyst.
On the side, the software giant Oracle, which had taken almost 4% in session, finally concluded in the red (-0.82%) despite quarterly results better than expected.
The Nasdaq was notably supported by Moderna, the vaccine maker, which jumped 19.63% to $197.54. The laboratory has announced positive preliminary results for its messenger RNA vaccine under development with Merck (+1.78%) against skin cancer.
The big names in technology performed well even if their progress calmed down during the session: Meta (Facebook) gained 4.74%, Amazon and Google more than 2%.
The electronic signature contract specialist DocuSign was noticed (+7.32%).
Oil companies benefited from a sustained rise in oil prices, notably Chevron (+2.23%), but also Exxon (+1.09%) and ConocoPhillips (+1.46%).
Shares of low-cost airline Jetblue tumbled 7.67% to $7.10 after reporting that travel demand appeared weaker than expected in December.