(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended on a mixed note on Friday, marked by a market deprived of participants, the day after a holiday (Thanksgiving) and on the eve of a weekend.
The Dow Jones gained 0.45%, while the NASDAQ index lost 0.52% and the broader S&P 500 index ended close to balance (-0.03%).
“It was a quiet session today,” commented Nick Reece of Merk Investments.
Amputated by three hours compared to an ordinary session, it was thus sandwiched between the Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday, and the weekend.
Due to a lack of investors, the New York market could not rely on any notable economic news, in the absence of a new macroeconomic indicator.
Next week should be more animated, announced Nick Reece, with the program, in particular, the PCE price index as well as the ISM and PMI activity barometers, Thursday, then the monthly report on employment, Friday.
The latest US macroeconomic figures show an increasingly clear slowdown.
Several central bankers have pleaded in recent days for a deceleration of monetary tightening, in order to avoid a brutal recession, which has won over operators and enabled the indices to do well.
But, for Nick Reece, “we are still in a rebound specific to bear markets” (“bear market rally”), that is to say a parenthesis, with a medium-term direction still downwards.
The prospect of a possible recession in 2023 “remains a drag on the market”, as does the Fed, which, although it could slow down, has not finished raising its rates.
The Dow Jones pulled out of the game on Friday thanks to several so-called defensive values, that is to say considered less sensitive to the economic situation.
Health, with the mutual UnitedHealth (+1.49%), the largest weighting of the Dow Jones, or the Merck laboratory (+0.64%), or the industry, of Honeywell (+0.52%) at 3 m (+0.81%), were thus sought-after sectors.
In the middle of “Black Friday”, a day traditionally marked by huge sales, the retail giant Walmart rose (+0.43% to 153.07 dollars).
According to data from the firm Captidy, the brand came first in searches related to sales on the internet, ahead of Amazon.
Apple was leaked (-1.96% to 148.11 dollars) while the giant factory in Zhengzhou, China, the largest iPhone manufacturing site in the world, has just been shaken by a major social movement which disrupts the production of the phone.
Wedbush Securities estimates iPhone sales on Black Friday are expected to be 20% lower than last year, “largely due to insufficient supplies” to meet demand.
The resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in China penalized Chinese companies listed on Wall Street, in particular the e-commerce giants Alibaba (-3.82%) and JD.com (-5.32%) or the manufacturer of electric vehicles XPeng (-3.28%).
The video game publisher Activision Blizzard (-4.07% to 73.47 dollars) took badly the announcement, by the Politico site, that the American consumer protection agency CFTC was preparing to challenge its takeover in court. by Microsoft.
Manchester United (+12.82% to 21.21 dollars), listed in New York, continued to benefit from the announcement on Tuesday of the Glazer family, owner of the football club, which plans to put it up for sale.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange closed higher on Friday, its various sectors sharing gains and losses, while the major US indices closed in dispersed order after a shortened session.
With the New York Stock Exchange closing in the early afternoon, as is tradition the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, it was a slower day for markets on both sides of the border, said John Zechner, president and chief equity manager at J Zechner Associates.
While the markets are in a quiet period this long weekend in the United States, Mr. Zechner explained that it is historically a strong time of the year.
“In this season, we are in the strongest period of the year. So it has been a tailwind for the markets lately,” he said.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 39.70 points to end the day at 20,838.77 points, after showing an increase of more than 100 points earlier in the session.
There’s a lot to do on Black Friday for many retailers, Zechner said — earnings season has been mixed for major retailers, with low-cost stores outperforming high-end stores.
“It was a little eye-opening,” he said. Obviously what happens in this environment is that people move down a bit […], they go to the discount retailers, they don’t go to the high end. »
The reality is that economic growth slows as interest rates rise, Zechner continued, even if the economic data is a bit late to show it.
“People are sticking to the necessities a little more and that’s also what you see in the stock market. »
Mr. Zechner said he expects the release of Canadian bank earnings next week to provide a better picture of the situation for consumers.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 74.76 cents US, down from 74.97 cents US on Thursday.
The Canadian Press