(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Monday, catching its breath after a series of records last week, in the absence of publications or major indicators.
The Dow Jones fell 0.41%, the NASDAQ index lost 0.27% and the broader S&P 500 index lost 0.31%.
The NASDAQ remained on three records in a row at the close, while Dow Jones and S&P 500 also recorded record highs last week.
“We are entering a period without news, now that the Fed [banque centrale américaine] is behind us,” commented Maris Ogg, of Fiduciary Trust, “and we don’t have many results” from companies in the days to come.
“It is therefore not abnormal to see a decline considering the gains made so far this year,” added the analyst.
The decline affected most of the big names in the technology sector, from Microsoft (-1.37%) to Meta (-1.29%), including Apple (-0.83%), weighed down by profit-taking, but also some negative developments.
The European Commission launched five procedures on Monday against Apple, Alphabet (-0.41%) and Meta, which it suspects of breaches of European competition rules.
Furthermore, AMD (-0.57%) and Intel (-1.74%) were weakened by information from Financial Times according to which the Chinese government wants to do without chips from the two American semiconductor manufacturers for the computers and servers of its administrations.
But the contraction movement was broad, also encompassing so-called defensive values, that is to say theoretically less sensitive to the economic situation, such as McDonald’s (-1.42%) or the industrial conglomerate 3 m (-1.82 %).
Investors took advantage of this lackluster session to look for some good deals.
They have particularly set their sights on the microprocessor company Micron (+6.28%), whose stock market performance has been less brilliant than its major competitors over the past year.
Other buoyant stocks include the mass distribution brand Target (+2.39%) and the pharmaceutical laboratory Moderna (+4.70%).
Tension in the bond market did not help stocks. The yield on 10-year US government bonds stood at 4.24%, compared to 4.19%.
The week looks set to be quiet, with no major company results and few important macroeconomic indicators ahead of the PCE price index on Friday.
This inflation barometer will be published on a public holiday, Good Friday, when Wall Street will be closed.
On the stock market, Boeing gained altitude (+1.36%) after the announcement of the departure of its general director, Dave Calhoun, at the end of the year, as well as the appointment of a new chairman of the board of administration. The manufacturer also replaced the head of the commercial aviation branch.
Disney rose (+3.01%) in the run-up to the group’s general meeting on April 3, which will be the occasion for a confrontation between supporters and opponents of the management of general director Bob Iger.
The Trian Group company, led by activist investor Nelson Peltz, once again called on the entertainment giant’s shareholders on Monday to elect the two representatives it wants to see join the board of directors.
The new surge in bitcoin benefited the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase (+9.47%), as well as the software publisher MicroStrategy (+21.86%), considered one of the companies not financial institutions holding the most bitcoins in the world.
Shares in electric vehicle maker Fisker were suspended after news broke of negotiations with another car company that could bail it out.
Upon suspension, the stock lost 28.17%. Fisker said he would not rule out a bankruptcy filing.
United Airlines fell (-3.40%) after the American civil aviation regulator, the FAA, revealed on Saturday that the American company was the subject of an in-depth investigation after a series of incidents during of several of his flights.