(New York) The New York Stock Exchange moved in a dispersed order on Monday, caught in a consolidation movement after reaching peaks on Friday, at the start of a week full of macroeconomic events.
Around 10 a.m. (Eastern time), the Dow Jones was up 0.03%, the NASDAQ index was down 0.38% and the broader S&P 500 index was down 0.03%.
On Friday, the S&P 500 recorded its highest closing level since March 2022, and signed a sixth consecutive week of gains.
“The market has grown so much that it needs to consolidate,” commented LPL Financial analyst Quincy Krosby. “Valuations are high. It would be beneficial for the market to take a break before gaining new year-end momentum. »
“No one is impatient to see the indices decline, which keeps the sellers at bay” for the moment, tempered, in a note, Patrick O’Hare, analyst at Briefing.com.
Most of the star technology stocks, which have driven the New York market since the start of the year, were nevertheless subject to profit taking, notably Amazon (-1.87%), Meta (-2 .52%) and Alphabet (-1.68%).
If Monday is devoid of announcements or indicators, investors are preparing for a busy week, with the publication of the CPI price index on Tuesday, the communication from the American central bank (Fed) on Wednesday, or retail sales on Thursday.
“The CPI is going to be very important,” announces Quincy Krosby, because it immediately precedes the Fed’s decision, which will be the last meeting of the year.
Operators are counting on a monetary status quo on Wednesday, but will be more interested in the tone of the declarations of the institution and its president Jerome Powell, as well as the updating of the institution’s forecasts.
They will thus watch for “any indication that the Fed could lower its rates in the first half of 2024,” explains Quincy Krosby.
As it stands, the market is betting on four rate cuts next year, the first in May. But in their latest projections, in September, the members of the monetary policy committee only mentioned, on average, two cuts.
On the bond market, the yield on 10-year US government bonds continued to rebound, at 4.26%, compared to 4.22% at Friday’s close.
Some results publications are also on the agenda, with Oracle, Monday after the stock market, Adobe, Wednesday, and two companies considered to be good indicators of consumption in the United States, the semi-wholesale supermarket chain Costco, Thursday, and the Darden restaurant group (Olive Garden in particular), Friday.
On Monday, Macy’s soared (+16.56%), after the Wall Street Journal reported a takeover offer for the department store chain by two investment companies, Arkhouse Management and Brigade. Capital Management.
The information benefited Macy’s rivals, in particular Nordstrom (+4.31%) and Kohl’s (+4.87%).
Occidental Petroleum (+0.81%) capitalized on the announcement of the purchase, for $12 billion, of the oil and gas group CrownRock, very present in the Permian basin, the leading shale oil reserve in the United States.
The health insurer Cigna jumped (+15.82%), in reaction to information from the Wall Street Journal according to which the Bloomfield (Connecticut) group has abandoned the acquisition of its competitor Humana, a transaction which would have united two behemoths with a total capitalization of more than $135 billion. Cigna also announced a $10 billion share buyback program.
Nike (+2.17%) was supported by an increase in recommendation from Citigroup, which anticipates a recovery in the sports equipment manufacturer’s margins and is counting on the Olympic Games to create momentum in 2024.