(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened higher, continuing its slow but steady rise of recent days, with investors anticipating a rate cut by the fall.
Around 10:15 a.m., the Dow Jones gained 0.39%, the NASDAQ index gained 0.18% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.28%.
The Dow Jones is aiming for an eighth positive session in a row, which would be its best performance since a series of nine consecutive gains in December.
The historic index of the New York market is less than 1% from its absolute closing record, recorded at the end of March.
“The market is trying to figure out what direction it should take, but in the meantime it continues to rise,” commented Quincy Krosby of LPL Financial.
For the analyst, Wall Street remains on the good impression left Thursday by the rise in new unemployment claims which, if bad news for the American economy, reinforces the possibility of monetary easing in the coming months.
“A rate cut is not guaranteed in the short term, but the market is confident in the idea that the next monetary policy movement will be a reduction” and not an increase, added Patrick O’Hare, from Briefing.com , in a note.
On Friday, the president of the Fed branch in Atlanta, Raphael Bostic, said he expected a rate cut this year.
Since the moderate communication from the American central bank (Fed) ten days ago, bond rates have relaxed, only to stabilize in recent days at a level that better suits investors.
They recovered slightly on Friday, with the yield on 10-year US government bonds showing at 4.48%, compared to 4.45% the day before at close.
Despite the good series of the Dow Jones, Quincy Krosby warns that enthusiasm is still lacking. “The buyer volumes are not strong enough to anchor the recent increase,” she underlines.
Operators hope to receive a strong signal with the publication, on Wednesday, of the American CPI price index for April, which will provide information on the trajectory of inflation.
On the market, the Novavax laboratory saw its capitalization more than double (+132.77%) at the opening, catapulted by the agreement which provides for the marketing by the French Sanofi of its vaccine against the coronavirus.
The Gaithersburg (Maryland) company could receive up to $1.2 billion from Sanofi under this partnership.
This is a major development for the laboratory, which reported, in March 2023, a “significant uncertainty” regarding its cash flow, penalized by the slowdown in sales of anti-COVID-19 vaccines.
Tesla fell (-0.80%) after its boss, Elon Musk, indicated that the manufacturer would invest “well over 500 million dollars” to develop its network of superchargers.
Investors have been wondering about the company’s strategy since the dismissal, at the end of April, of most of the team assigned to the charger network.
The Taiwanese semiconductor giant, listed in Taiwan but also in New York, took off at a gallop (+5.40%) after reporting a 60% jump in its turnover in April over one year, against a backdrop of strong appetite for artificial intelligence.
The New York market was awaiting the first listing, later in the session, of the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Zeekr, controlled by the Geely automobile group, majority shareholder of Volvo.
Cryptocurrency “miner” Marathon Digital Holdings fell (-7.53%) after disappointing analysts in the first quarter, even though its turnover more than tripled over one year.
Warner Bros. Discovery continued its recovery (+3.79%), supported by the upcoming launch of a streaming bringing together its flagship Max and Disney+, as well as Hulu.
reference: www.lapresse.ca