(New York) The New York Stock Exchange was trading in scattered order around equilibrium on Wednesday, with the broader S&P 500 index moving close to an all-time high in a calm market after the Holidays.
The Dow Jones index advanced 0.14%. The S&P 500 fell -0.05% and the NASDAQ -0.09% around 10:15 a.m.
The broader index is now just half a percentage point from its January 2022 all-time high of 4,796.56 points.
At the end of the last three trading sessions of the year, the Dow Jones should end 2023 up around 13% for the year, the S&P 500 up 24%. As for the NASDAQ, it will post a jump of around 44%, its best annual performance since 2003.
“The day begins with the S&P 500 index less than half a percent from its all-time high after Tuesday’s solid gains,” Schwab analysts noted. “However, there is hardly any catalyst to help him achieve this given the rather thin news from the holiday period,” they lamented.
The bond market, however, continued to relax, with yields on ten-year Treasury bills falling to 3.83% from 3.89% the day before.
“For some, geopolitical anxieties in the Middle East are the cause,” suggested Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
However, oil prices were falling.
On the value side, Microsoft was little affected (-0.21%) by the news of a daily complaint New York Times against him and that of ChatGPT, the operator of OpenAI.
The newspaper accuses the companies of violating copyright protection by using its articles and the work of its journalists to feed the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (AI) services.
The securities listed on Wall Street of the Japanese group SoftBank climbed 2.57% after the technology giant announced doubling its stake in the American telecom operator T-Mobile US (+0.15%).
SoftBank obtains 48.8 million T-Mobile US shares worth $7.6 billion, without paying a cent, under a previous agreement, dating back to the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint which was a subsidiary of SoftBank.
The Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio saw its shares slip by almost 2% after the jump the day before (+11%) following the presentation of a new vehicle model.
Within the Dow Jones, Apple shares, in slight decline for five sessions, lost another 0.39%.
“The market has grown so much and so quickly that it is possible that it will experience a period of consolidation,” Schwab analysts said.
The securities listed on Wall Street of the Chinese internet and online gaming giants NetEase (-4.40%) and Tencent (-2.70%) were losing momentum, after having seriously declined on Friday, following changes to regulations affecting online gaming in China.
The biotech Coherus BioSciences soared 22% to $2.66 after the American health authorities (FDA) approved an element of treatment for the possible infectious side effects of chemotherapy.