(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended at half mast on Friday, anxious after mixed American indicators and before a monetary meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed) next week.
The Dow Jones index lost 0.49% to 38,714.77 points, the NASDAQ, with its strong technological coloring, dropped 0.96% to 15,973.17 points and the broader S&P 500 index shed 0.65% to 5117.09 points.
The American import (+0.3% in February) and export (+0.8%) price indices published on Friday added a dose of concern about inflation “which is proving more tenacious than expected.” we thought at the start of the year,” commented Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital for AFP.
On the industrial production side, in March, activity in the New York region saw its Empire State barometer plummet by 18.5 points to fall to -20.9.
In February, industrial production at the national level almost stagnated at (+0.1%), according to data from the Federal Reserve.
“The manufacturing sector continues to face challenges from rising borrowing costs and tightening financial conditions,” commented Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist for HFE.
Finally, consumer confidence weakened a little in March, according to the preliminary estimate from the University of Michigan which puts it 0.4 points lower than last month at 76.5 points.
Beyond that, investors are focusing on the monetary meeting of the American central bank (Fed) on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We are in an inflation environment which has taken us from the hope of six rate cuts to three now,” said Jack Ablin.
No rate cut is expected from this meeting next week. The markets are counting on a first rate cut in June, or even July.
But investors will scrutinize the Fed’s press release, and the press conference of its President Jerome Powell on Wednesday.
“This is the first of four Fed meetings in 2024 during which the central bank will publish its economic projections” and especially the table which gives an idea of the future evolution of the overnight rates set by the Fed.
These are currently between 5.25% and 5.50%, the highest in more than twenty years.
On the stock market, mega-caps, the locomotives of the technology sector, suffered on Friday. Microsoft dropped 2.07%, Alphabet -1.50%, Amazon -2.42%, Meta -1.57%.
The popular real estate transaction site Zillow collapsed 13.49% as the National Association of Realtors resolved, after lawsuits, to accept an agreement that could lower agents’ commissions.
Besides Zillow, another real estate site Redfin dropped 4.91%.
The cryptoasset sector recovered after having had a moment of weakness in the first part of the session in the wake of a decline in bitcoin following a new all-time high the day before.
Thus, the shares of the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase rose by 3.72%.
Software company MicroStrategy, a big investor in bitcoin, gained 6.29% after being in the red in the morning.
At around 4:15 p.m. EST, the price of bitcoin was down 3.93% at $67,910, after hitting a new all-time high the day before at $73,797.
The bond market, whose rates had risen the day before, remained tense at 4.31% compared to 4.29% for ten-year Treasury bonds.
The TSX gained some ground on the rise in base metals
The base metals sector helped Canada’s main stock index post a gain Friday, while U.S. stock markets were lower, led by the NASDAQ’s nearly 1% loss.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 19.30 points at 21,849.15.
On the currency market, the Canadian dollar was trading at 73.89 US cents, compared to 74.01 US cents on Thursday.
Rose Saba, The Canadian Press