(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended up on Friday, satisfied with the US employment figures and carried by the so-called defensive values.
Updated yesterday at 5:46 p.m.
The Dow Jones gained 0.40%, to 34,818.27 points, the NASDAQ index, with a strong technological flavor, gained 0.29%, to 14,261.49 points and the broader S&P 500 index, 0, 34%, at 4545.86 points.
The New York place had been launched before the opening by the monthly report on employment, which reported 431,000 job creations in March.
Although the figure is lower than expected (490,000), it was nevertheless well received, especially since the data for January and February have been revised, with nearly 100,000 net more jobs in total (95,000 ).
The unemployment rate stood at 3.6%, better than expected (3.8%) and almost its February 2020 level (3.5%), before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This report “will strengthen the Federal Reserve’s determination to control inflation and increase the probability of a hike by half a point at the May meeting”, commented, in a note, Kathy Bostjancic, of the cabinet Oxford Economics.
A sign that the market is anticipating accelerated monetary tightening, but also fearing its consequences for growth, 2-year US government bond rates rose above 10-year rates.
This phenomenon, called the inversion of the yield curve, is deemed to herald a recession, but with a horizon of more than one year. The negative gap between these two rates is now the highest in 15 years.
For Matthew Weller, head of research for brokerage platform Forex.com, by bolstering the likelihood of monetary tightening, the jobs report prompted profit-taking on riskier assets ahead of the weekend. end.
On the front line, growth stocks, sensitive to the interest rate environment, went down a few floors, like the graphics card manufacturer Nvidia (-2.10%) or the semiconductor specialists Qualcomm (-3.81%) or Intel (-2.93%).
Given the geopolitical and economic uncertainty, “it makes sense to be more cautious now than at any time in the last two years”, according to Chris Zaccarelli, of the Independent Advisor Alliance, which justifies interest in “high quality companies with strong balance sheets”.
On Friday, defensive stocks, considered less sensitive to economic cycles, were in the spotlight. The consumer goods sectors, with Coca-Cola (+1.40%) or PepsiCo (+1.42%), pharmaceuticals with Merck (+1.79%) or cable operators, with Comcast (+ 1.88%), were all researched.
For Jay Hatfield, of ICAP, the indices should, as they did on Friday, evolve within tight margins until the start of the earnings season in mid-April, which should mark, according to him, the start of a new impetus.
Chinese shares listed on Wall Street paraded, helped by information from the Bloomberg agency according to which the Chinese authorities would consider giving access to the accounts of these companies to foreign auditors.
The American market regulator, the SEC, which relies on a law passed in Congress, has warned these companies that in the event of refusal of certification by an approved firm, they could be delisted as early as 2024.
In the lead, the Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba (+1.29%), Pinduoduo (+6.33%) and JD.com (+2.11%).
General Motors was sanctioned (-1.78% to 42.96 dollars) after reporting sales down 20% year on year in the first quarter, largely due to supply problems.
The Toronto Stock Exchange started the new quarter on Friday, closing higher, as the energy sector rose despite a drop in the price of crude oil.
The Toronto floor’s S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed 62.79 points to end the day at 21,952.95 points. Over the week as a whole, he has lost 53 points.
The Canadian dollar mimicked the pullback in oil prices and traded at an average price of 79.92 cents US, down from 80.03 cents US the previous day.
The Materials sector, which includes precious and base metals, fertilizer companies and forest products companies, posted the biggest rise on the TSX on Friday, gaining 2.1% – despite falling of the price of metals.