(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended up on Wednesday and signed a fourth consecutive session of progress, in a market which sees the speech of the Fed softening and which is satisfied with the results of companies.
Updated yesterday at 5:02 p.m.
The Dow Jones gained 0.63% to 35,629.33 points, the tech-heavy NASDAQ index gained 0.50% to 14,417.54 points, and the broader S&P 500 index, 0, 94%, at 4589.38 points.
Many investors said they were relieved by the tone of the latest speeches by members of the American Central Bank (Fed), which seem to have ruled out the possibility of a 50 basis point (0.5 percentage point) hike. suddenly, which would be a first since 2000.
“Everyone has calmed down a bit,” commented Maris Ogg, president of the management company Tower Bridge Advisors.
Another catalyst for the indices on Wednesday were the sparkling results of several big names in the stock market, first and foremost Alphabet (Google), but also the semiconductor manufacturer AMD.
“Even if the results are spotty, for all the reasons we already knew,” from supply issues to persistent inflation to labor shortages, “they’re not bad. There were a lot of good numbers,” the analyst noted.
Investors did not make much of the loss of 301,000 jobs in the private sector in January in the United States, which nevertheless took economists by surprise, who expected 220,000 job creations.
The chief economist of the ADP cabinet, which published these figures, indicated that this movement was linked to “the effect of the Omicron variant” of the coronavirus.
Maris Ogg recalled that the indicator was often out of step with the employment report from the Ministry of Labor, expected on Friday, preventing any conclusions from being drawn as to this figure, which is very closely followed.
Alphabet (Google) was the attraction of the day in New York, propelled by record quarterly results (+7.37% to 2960.73 dollars), above expectations. All of the group’s activities (advertising, remote computing, etc.) show insolent growth.
The company also announced the splitting of its share by 20, in order to make this title, which flirts with 3000 dollars per unit, more affordable for small holders.
The online payment service provider PayPal experienced an opposite trajectory (-24.59% to 132.57 dollars) after the publication, Tuesday after the stock market, of a profit below expectations and above all of forecasts deemed disappointing. The Californian company expects a net profit of 87 cents per share in the first quarter, while the market was expecting so far on 1.16 dollars.
On Wednesday, the market thus distinguished between the heavyweights of technology, such as Alphabet, but also Microsoft, Google or Meta, and emerging players, including many growth stocks.
In addition to PayPal, its rivals Block (ex-Square, -10.63%) and SoFi (-8.36%) slid, as did the credit specialist for internet purchases Affirm (-9.77 % to 60.89 dollars), the e-commerce platform Shopify (-9.99%), the photo-sharing site Pinterest (-8.93%) or Snap (-4.73%), parent company of Snapchat.
AMD has benefited from better than expected results (+5.12% to 122.76 dollars), but above all from a very optimistic speech from its leaders for the months to come. The semiconductor maker says it is ready to meet demand in 2022, thanks in part to investments made in 2021.
The tone of the conference call presenting its results on Tuesday contrasted with that of companies in the sector in recent months, which all reported a shortage of components.
AMD took in its wake its competitors Qualcomm (+6.25%) and Micron (+3.76%), as well as the specialist in graphics cards Nvidia (+2.45%).
For its part, the Starbucks coffee chain fell 1.04% to 97.73 dollars, after reporting a net profit below analysts’ forecasts.
The group, which has already increased certain prices in October and January to cope with rising costs, announced on Tuesday that it plans additional increases in the year.
The Toronto Stock Exchange on a good streak
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s benchmark index closed higher on Wednesday for a fourth consecutive session, despite a sharp drop in the stock of Shopify and the information technology sector.
The Toronto floor’s S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 42.44 points to end the day with 21,362.36 points.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 78.88 cents US, up from 78.78 cents US the previous day.
On the New York Commodities Exchange, crude oil rose 6 cents US to US$88.26 a barrel, while natural gas rose 75 cents US to US$5.50 million BTUs.
The price of gold rose US$8.80 to US$1810.30 an ounce and that of copper rose 6.2 cents US to US$4.50 per pound.
The Canadian Press