Wall Street ends in scattered order

(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended in scattered order on Thursday, lacking any news to guide the market, between the developments of the last days on the Omicron variant and a highly anticipated inflation indicator on Friday.

The Dow Jones ended in equilibrium, while the NASDAQ index, with a strong technological flavor, dropped 1.71% to 15,517.36 points and the extended S&P 500 index, 0.72%, to 4667, 45 points.

For analysts at Briefing.com, NASDAQ and Russell 2000 (SME index) “took the brunt of the losses after three days of outperformance”.

Unsurprisingly, technology stars like semiconductor manufacturer AMD (-4.92%) or graphics card specialist Nvidia (-4.20%), who had been at the party since Monday, had a hangover .

Still, “looks like nothing has really changed,” responded Maris Ogg, portfolio manager at Tower Brigde Advisors. “We are clearly in a market that is heading for announcements. ”

With no significant development on the coronavirus and Omicron variant front, traders have focused on inflation and the US Central Bank’s (Fed) reaction to the price hike. The CPI inflation indicator for November is due on Friday.

The acceleration of the dollar as well as the rise, even slightly, of US bond rates (1.49% against 1.47% for the 10-year maturity), show that investors are now counting on a Fed that is more aggressive than it is. hasn’t been in years, making the markets nervous.

The VIX volatility index, which measures the perception of risk by operators, has also regained a little height after having fallen since Monday.

But year after year, Wall Street has already integrated as a central scenario an imminent monetary tightening and a moderate impact of the Omicron variant.

By the end of December, “I do not see where the pressure to sell would come from, but I also do not see where a buying trend would come from,” says Maris Ogg, while the last weeks of December are traditionally the opportunity for upward momentum. “So we’re probably going to continue to be undecided until the end of the year. ”

Stock in the spotlight on Thursday was the young Brazilian online bank Nubank, which made an encouraging start on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and closed its first trading session up 14.2%, at 10, 28 dollars.

The troublemaker of Brazilian finance has managed to raise $ 2.6 billion and is now worth around $ 47 billion, a success for a bank that is only 8 years old.

Traditional Brazilian banks which are listed on Wall Street have fallen sharply in the face of this success, in particular Bradesco (-3.21%) or Itaú (-3.72%).

Electric vehicle maker Lucid fell (-18.34% to $ 36.52) after the announcement of a bond issue of $ 1.75 billion. The group has brought with it several flagship stocks in the electric vehicle sector such as Rivian (-5.50%) or Tesla (-6.10%).

The chain of video game stores GameStop fell sharply (-10.30% to 155.76 dollars), after the publication, Wednesday after market, of a loss greater than expected by analysts.

Starting point of the so-called “same stocks” movement (actions that trigger a wave of purchases by small investors), the title has been very popular since January.

The group, which did better than expected on turnover, explained this loss by its strategy of focusing on increasing stocks to meet demand during the holiday season.

The CVS drugstore chain jumped (+ 4.52% to 97.31 dollars) after raising its turnover and profit targets for the year 2021.

Investors also welcomed the new strategy of the group, which wants to develop its offer of care beyond simple pharmacy and drugs.

Also in the medical sector, Pfizer took advantage (+ 1.32% to 52.08 dollars) from the announcement of the authorization, by the American authorities, of its anti-COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents of 16 and 17 years in the United States.