(New York) The New York Stock Exchange closed Thursday on a third straight increase, with a record for the S&P 500 index, relieved by the lower virulence of the Omicron variant and satisfied by generally positive US indicators.
The Dow Jones finished with a gain of 0.55% to 35,950.56 points, the technology-heavy NASDAQ index gained 0.85% to 15,653.37 points and the S&P 500 advanced 0 , 62% to register at 4725.79 points, an absolute record, the 68e of the year for the extended index.
“Last week we were only talking about the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and inflation,” commented Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS Investments. “This week, we see the news of COVID-19 in a more favorable light. There is much more optimism about the management of the pandemic. This is what has been boosting the market for three sessions. ”
The VIX index, which measures market volatility and investor nervousness, fell Thursday to its lowest level since mid-November.
“Positive macroeconomic data has helped market sentiment and pushed stocks,” Schwab analysts said in a note.
They referred in particular to weekly jobless claims, still very low, and durable goods orders for November higher than expected.
Although lower than the previous month (+ 1.4%), the increase in household spending in November was in line with expectations, at 0.6%.
This image of a US economy still growing strongly was somewhat tarnished by the PCE index, a closely watched inflation indicator, which rose 5.7% year-on-year in November, its highest rate since 1982.
In the University of Michigan monthly survey, also released Thursday, one in four households “specifically cited the negative impact of inflation on their standard of living.”
“Although inflation is expected to stabilize at a higher level than in the recent past, […] if investors watch over a long period of time, we are still at a low level, ”argued Greg Bassuk.
At the rating, the Chinese online commerce platform JD.com unscrewed (-6.92% to 68.65 dollars), shaken by the next distribution of 460 million titles of the group by the conglomerate Tencent.
The latter will thus transfer to its shareholders most of its stake, which will go from 17% to 2.3% of the capital of JD.com.
The online commerce group Pinduoduo, of which Tencent is also a shareholder, followed (-1.25% to 57.71 dollars).
Hydrogen and electric truck maker Nikola roared (+ 17.98% to $ 11.09) after announcing that one of the first two trucks the group took to customers last week had made its first delivery.
The start-up also revealed that it had received an order for 100 trucks from an Illinois transporter.
Boeing rose (+ 1.25% to 204.22 dollars) after the publication on Wednesday by the American civil aviation regulator (FAA) of proposals to modify certain 777 models, grounded since a flight incident in February.
The only American company to use devices of this model, United (+ 0.67% to 44.87 dollars) said Wednesday that it was counting on a return to service “early 2022”.
Plastic clog maker Crocs slipped (-11.63% to $ 123.53) after announcing the acquisition of multi-purpose shoe brand Hey Dude for $ 2.5 billion, or more than one third of its own capitalization.
The sudden decline in the share is explained, in part, by the fact that Crocs will issue $ 450 million in new shares to finance part of this acquisition.
The video services group SeaChange International suffered (-6.63%, to 1.83 dollars) the day after the announcement of its merger with the video platform Triller, which competes with TikTok.
After the merger, the whole will be valued at around $ 5 billion, the two companies said on Wednesday, with SeaChange only weighing around $ 89 million in market capitalization as it stands.
NASDAQ