(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended higher on Tuesday, welcoming diplomatic advances on Ukraine, but with more measured enthusiasm than European markets.
Updated yesterday at 5:00 p.m.
The Dow Jones gained 0.97%, marking its tenth increase in twelve sessions. The tech-heavy NASDAQ index gained 1.84% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 1.23%.
For analysts at Briefing.com, it was “hopes for a ceasefire (in Ukraine) that drove the rise”. There is “positive momentum,” they wrote, in a note.
After several hours of discussions in Istanbul, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators have indicated that the diplomatic advances were sufficient to organize a meeting between Ukrainian Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the process, Russia promised to “radically” reduce the intensity of its offensive on the capital Kyiv and the Ukrainian city of Cherniguiv.
“In the United States, the markets did not respond at the same level” as the European markets, “but it was a good catalyst to push the sliders higher,” commented Tom Cahill, of Ventura Wealth Management.
The S&P 500 crossed the technical threshold of 4600 points without flinching, a sign for Tom Cahill that there is still room for improvement.
In addition to Ukraine, “the market has gotten used to the idea that the Federal Reserve can achieve a soft landing for the economy”, according to him, by raising its rates without suffocating American growth.
The VIX index, which measures market volatility, fell to its lowest level since mid-January, a sign of less nervousness among investors.
On the bond market, on the other hand, rates experienced violent upheavals. The yield on 10-year US government bonds finally ended at 2.45%, against 2.39% the day before, showing a transfer to other asset classes, mainly equities.
Unsurprisingly, the day benefited growth stocks, such as the manufacturer of electric vehicles Rivian (+17.18%), the specialist in connected exercise bikes Peloton (+10.05%) or Uber (+6.96). %).
The brokerage platform Robinhood even took off (+ 24.20% to 15.91 dollars), after announcing that it was increasing the daily time slot for carrying out transactions by four hours, now between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., with the objective, in the long term, to enable continuous trading.
All the giant NASDAQ capitalizations ended in the green, led by Apple (+ 1.91% to 178.96 dollars), which signed its eleventh consecutive increase and is now a breath away from the 3000 billion valuation (2921) , a threshold already briefly crossed at the beginning of January.
Regularly battered since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, cruise lines Norwegian (+3.12%), Carnival (+2.73%) and Royal Caribbean (+3.07%) have taken off, as well as American Airlines or Delta Air Lines.
Nielsen (+20.31% to $26.72) jumped. The audience measurement firm agreed to be taken over by a consortium of investment funds, led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation. This agreement values the firm at $16 billion, debt included.
The course is thus close to the price proposed by the consortium, ie 28 dollars per title.
The courier group FedEx reacted calmly (+3.70% to 238.57 dollars) to the announced decline of the founder Frederick Smith, who will cede the post of general manager on 1er June to retain only that of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.
The Toronto Stock Exchange closes higher thanks to the tech sector
A broad rally led by the information technology sector helped the Toronto Stock Exchange close higher on Tuesday, despite pullbacks from energy and materials groups, which were reacting to possible progress in negotiations in l Ukraine and Russia.
The Toronto floor’s S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 109.39 points to end the session with 22,087.22 points.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 79.94 cents US, up from 79.41 cents US the previous day.
The price of gold plunged US$26.70 to US$1,918.00 an ounce, while that of copper took less than 1 cent to US$4.73 a pound.
The Canadian Press