(New York) The New York Stock Exchange narrowly closed in the green on Wednesday, in a sparse market after the holidays, with the broader S&P 500 index getting a little closer to a new all-time high.
The Dow Jones index gained 0.30% to 37,656.52 points, the NASDAQ, with its strong technological coloring, advanced 0.16% to 15,099.18 points and the S&P 500 nibbled 0.14%, finishing at 4781.58 points.
“The S&P 500 continues to attempt to reach that elusive new all-time high that it is less than 0.5% away from,” commented Sam Stoval, chief investment strategist for CFRA.
The analyst noted that 90% of stocks in the broader index, the most representative of the American market, were above their 50-day average.
The New York market is in the middle of the week of the “Santa Claus bull market”, the period of the last five sessions of the year which, in general, favors investors.
Stocks were slightly supported by a further pronounced easing of bond rates. Yields on ten-year Treasury bonds fell to 3.78%, from 3.89% the day before, the lowest since July.
“For some, geopolitical anxieties in the Middle East are the cause,” suggested Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
For their part, oil prices ended with a fall on Wednesday, losing most of the ground gained the day before, while maritime traffic resumed in the Red Sea.
On the value side, Microsoft was little affected (-0.16%) by the news of a complaint filed Wednesday by the daily New York Times against it and that of OpenAI, creator of the ChatGPT software.
The newspaper accuses these 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 2.80% after this technology giant announced it would double 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 slide by 2.41% after the jump the day before (+11%) following the presentation of a new vehicle model.
Within the Dow Jones, Apple shares stabilized (+0.07%) after oscillating according to news concerning the suspension of the sale of its connected watches due to a patent violation problem.
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court finally suspended the ban on sales of several models of Apple connected watches.
The securities listed on Wall Street of the Chinese internet and online gaming giants NetEase (-4.96%) and Tencent (-2.89%) lost momentum, after having seriously declined on Friday, following changes to regulations affecting online gaming in China.
The biotech Coherus BioSciences soared 23.62% to $2.69, after the American health authorities (FDA) approved an element of treatment for the possible infectious side effects of chemotherapies.
The Toronto Stock Exchange closes up more than 100 points
Canada’s main stock index closed higher on its first day of trading after Christmas, while U.S. stock markets were also higher after wobbling earlier in the day.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 134.72 points to 21,015.91.
The Canadian dollar traded at 75.73 US cents, compared to 75.43 US cents on Friday.
Gold rose US$23.30 to US$2,093.10 an ounce and copper gained half a cent to US$3.96 a pound.
The Canadian Press