(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Monday and continued its irresistible rise, driven by the prospect of rate cuts, a measured deceleration in economic activity and a lull on the financial front. inflation.
Around 2:55 p.m. (9:55 a.m. Eastern Time), the Dow Jones was up 0.01%, the NASDAQ was up 0.22% and the broader S&P 500 was up 0.25%.
The three major indices remain on seven consecutive weeks of gains, and the Dow Jones has just recorded three records in a row at the close.
The small increase at the start of the session “is moderate, but it is nonetheless an increase”, made possible by the momentum of the market and the period at the end of the year, often conducive to a positive streak, has explained, in a note, Patrick O’Hare, of Briefing.com.
Wall Street remains captivated by the idea that a monetary shift is imminent, validated by calmer inflation and American economic activity whose temperature has dropped significantly.
“The economy is slowing, but it is possible that this phase will end this summer,” explains Maris Ogg of Tower Bridge Advisors. “And as the market is, in general, 9 to 12 months ahead” of the economic situation, it is already seeing the end of the tunnel, according to the analyst.
Investors reacted little to the remarks of the president of the branch of the American central bank (Fed) in Chicago, Austan Goolsbee, who affirmed that the members of the Fed were not yet discussing rate cuts for the moment.
On Wednesday, however, Fed President Jerome Powell said the opposite.
The bond market was calm. The yield on 10-year US government bonds stood at 3.96%, compared to 3.91% on Friday, closing.
On the stock side, for once, the New York market was driven by stocks other than the technological giants. The S&P 500 thus accelerated more than the NASDAQ or the Dow Jones.
Oil stocks rose in particular, in step with black gold, against a backdrop of tensions in the Red Sea, the scene of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and now avoided by a number of carriers.
ExxonMobil (+2.06%), Chevron (+1.68%) and ConocoPhillips (+2.13%) were all moving in the green.
Abandoned since the start of Wall Street’s gallop at the end of October, pharmaceutical laboratories also stood out, like Pfizer (+1.40%), Eli Lilly (+1.22%) or Merck (+0.85 %).
Also shunned until now, a few banks were doing well, mainly JPMorgan Chase (+0.80%) and Citigroup (+0.51%).
“There are still a lot of stocks that are in the red for the year,” underlined Mari Ogg, of Tower Bridge Advisors. “Many for good reasons, but some turn out to be good deals. »
The steelmaker US Steel jumped (+25.96% to $49.54) after the announcement of an agreement for its takeover by the Japanese Nippon Steel Corporation for around $14.1 billion. The share price was close to the price proposed by the buyer, i.e. $55 per share.
US Steel’s American competitor, Nucor, the world’s largest capitalization in the sector, was sought after (+2.70%), as was Steel Dynamics (+2.37%), Reliance Steel & Aluminum (+2.53%). or Cleveland-Cliffs (+8.26%).
The market reacted favorably to software publisher Adobe’s (+1.57%) decision to acquire the collaborative design platform Figma, more than 15 months after the announcement of this $20 billion operation.
The San Jose (California) group said there was no “clear path” to address the reservations of EU and UK regulators.
Southwest Airlines fell (-1.43%), weighed down by a $140 million fine imposed by the US Department of Transportation for its management of the 2022 holiday season, which saw the cancellation of 16,900 of its flights .
The biotech Illumina gained 0.97% after recording the upcoming sale of the cancer screening blood test laboratory Grail, again due to regulatory obstacles. In October, the European Commission demanded this sale, for fear of seeing Illumina acquire a dominant position.