(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended on a mixed note Wednesday, under the effect of profit taking, but also concern over the possible failure of negotiations in the US Congress on two massive budget plans.
The Dow Jones ended down 0.74% to 35,490.69 points, and the broader S&P 500 Index, 0.51% to 4,551.68 points, while the NASDAQ ended in equilibrium at 15,235.83 points.
All three indices had started in the green, but the Dow Jones quickly backed off as the S&P 500 zigzagged around equilibrium before heading into negative territory.
For Christopher Low, chief economist of the financial consultancy firm FHN Financial, this decline is due to profit taking, which comes after three consecutive records for the Dow Jones.
“We have probably reached the sales threshold for some,” said the analyst.
The fall in the flagship Wall Street index is also due to the poor performance of Visa (-6.92%) and Boeing (-1.53%), one weighed down by forecasts deemed too cautious and the other by a new quarterly loss.
The two values weigh in fact, together, more than 8% of the Dow Jones.
At the end of the session, investors, for the first time in several days, turned their attention to Congress, where Democrats continue to negotiate the content and funding of two budget plans that could exceed $ 3 trillion in total.
A time enthusiastic about the idea of this major boost to the economy, then concerned about its possible contribution to the current inflationary surge, the market now takes a dim view of a possible failure.
“At the moment, incomes are not keeping pace with inflation, so I think there is the fear of a recession without a new stimulus,” said Christopher Low.
Conversely, bond rates contracted, as failure would be unfavorable to an upcoming interest rate hike by the US Central Bank (Fed). The ten-year US government bond rate stood at 1.53%, down from 1.61% on Tuesday.
Microsoft hit the title’s all-time high and finished up 4.21%, propelled by scintillating results, with net income of $ 20.5 billion, up 48%.
Revenues from the cloud business (remote computing), the group’s growth engine, jumped 31%.
Same trajectory for Alphabet (+ 4.84%), which set a record and approached $ 2 trillion in market capitalization.
Like Microsoft, Google’s parent company has enjoyed spectacular results, with revenue up 41% to $ 65 billion.
Also in verve, in a completely different sector, Coca-Cola (+ 1.93%) which has revised upwards its financial objectives for 2021, after a first increase in the last quarter.
McDonald’s stood out (+ 2.67%) thanks to better than expected results, with an acceleration in all of its major markets, in the United States and internationally. The fast food chain had a strong quarter thanks in part to price increases and larger orders on average.
Twitter fell (-10.78%) after recording a heavy quarterly loss, linked to the compensation of shareholders who accused executives of having deceived investors in 2015.
The American laboratory Novavax took advantage (+ 4.83%) of the filing in the United Kingdom of an application for marketing authorization for its vaccine against COVID-19.
General Motors was the victim (-5.42%) of a turnover and a decline in profit, a disappointment partly due to the shortage of electronic chips which affects the whole sector.
Spotify has gushed (+ 8.30%) after the publication of a quarterly turnover above expectations.
The mainstream brokerage platform Robinhood plunged (-10.44%) the day after the publication of disappointing results, marked by the sharp slowdown in cryptocurrency transactions, a major source of income for the company.