(New York) The indices of the New York Stock Exchange appear higher at the opening on Friday, after two positive sessions, in the wake of a moderation in inflation in February.
The Dow Jones was up 0.51%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ 0.53% and the S&P 500 0.48% around 10:20 a.m.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones gained 0.43% to 33,118 points and the NASDAQ gained 0.73% to 13,075.25 points, while the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.57% to 4086.50 points, thus experiencing its fifth positive session in six trading days.
Inflation slowed in February in the United States, to 5% over one year against 5.3% the previous month, according to the PCE index, a measure favored by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
In just one month, price increases also slowed to 0.3%, slightly below analysts’ expectations of 0.4%, according to the consensus published by briefing.com. Household income, for their part, rose by 0.3%, while their expenditure rose by only 0.2% against +2% in January.
“The Fed’s favorite inflation measure has come down from recent highs but remains well above the Fed’s” 2% target, noted Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist for HFE. This shows “the slow progress of the response [de l’économie] to the tightening of monetary policy”, further underlined the analyst.
For Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com, this slow decline remains “an argument for a continuation of the rise in rates” from the American central bank.
Friday was the last session of a quarter rocked by the banking crisis, which prompted a comeback for technology stocks. It also pushes investors to close their portfolios in the green, analysts said.
“It seems that the general fear of systemic contagion from the regional banking crisis has dissipated thanks to the quick and effective actions of banking regulators to strengthen confidence in the system,” commented Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth. Management.
President Joe Biden had called on Thursday to strengthen banking supervision by restoring the obligation of stress tests for mid-sized banks.
“There are more than 4,200 banks in the United States and it looks like the problem ones will only represent a handful of them, those that had a high level of uninsured deposits coupled with poor risk management by management. “, further estimated Art Hogan.
On the odds, all S&P sectors were green, led by consumer spending (+1.10%) and real estate (+0.96%).
The titles of large retail groups were on the rise from Walmart (+1.35%) to Macy’s department stores (+1.18%) to the DIY chain Home Depot (+1.14%).
Electric vehicle maker Nikola stalled steeply losing 13% to $1.22. The manufacturer announced the day before the sale of shares for 100 million dollars at a price lower than the quotation on Thursday, in order to build up reserves.
On the bond market, yields on ten-year bonds eased to 3.52% from 3.55% the day before.