(New York) The New York Stock Exchange closed sharply higher on Friday, still supported by hopes that inflation has peaked, which would ease the Fed’s monetary policy going forward.
Updated yesterday at 4:51 p.m.
According to final results, the Dow Jones index climbed 1.27% to 33,761.05 points, the NASDAQ jumped 2.09% to 13,047.19 points and the S&P 500 jumped 1.73% to 4280. .15 points, having its fourth consecutive positive week, the longest spell in the green since November.
Over the week, the index of star stocks gained 2.92%. The increase is 3.08% for the NASDAQ, which is dominated by technology, and 3.26% for the S&P 500, the most representative index of the American market, which has also been in the green over the last four weeks.
Markets were mainly buoyed this week by good inflation news as consumer prices for July in the United States increased by 8.5% year on year compared to 9.1% the month before , suggesting the passage of a peak.
This relieved Wall Street which hopes that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will be less severe on interest rates in the future.
“There was a change of heart after better inflation data. But is it justified? wondered skeptically Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital.
“It could mean that the expectations are too ambitious. It could be that some optimistic investors are going a little too far,” he said.
The next central bank monetary meeting is scheduled for September 21, and there will still be the CPI release by then, but investors are already pricing in a half-percentage-point hike rather than three. quarter points (0.75%), like the last two times.
Some members of the Fed have thus moderated the enthusiasm by recalling, like Mary Daly of the Fed of San Francisco on Thursday, that a turn of the screw of 75 basis points remained on the table.
Household morale is improving
In other good news released on Friday, the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index came in much better than expected in August at 55.1 points vs. 51.5 points in July, emerging from all-time lows hit in June.
The dollar was gaining strength, with the dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of several currencies, gaining 0.56% around 8:20 p.m. GMT while the euro lost 0.61% to $1.0266, weighed down by fears of recession in the euro zone with the sharp rise in energy prices.
On the stock market, Disney continued to be sought after (+3.30%) after the announcement of solid results, a jump in new subscribers to Disney + and the announcement of new offers of streamingeither more expensive or with advertising.
Tech megacaps pulled NASDAQ like Alphabet (+2.36%), Tesla (+4.68%), Apple (+2.14%). The manufacturer of microprocessors, battered last week after a disappointing earnings warning, regained strength (+4.27%).
The market warmly congratulated Peloton, the manufacturer of exercise bikes (+13.60% to 13.53 dollars), which will cut 800 jobs and close stores to be more profitable.
Five major Chinese groups, including oil companies Sinopec and PetroChina as well as an aluminum heavyweight Chalco, listed via American certificates of deposit on Wall Street, have announced that they will soon withdraw from the New York stock exchange due to the rules of transparency required by the American stock market policeman, the SEC.