The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Wednesday, facing mixed quarterly results and a new set of indicators, against a backdrop of caution before the US presidential election.
The Dow Jones fell 0.22%, the Nasdaq index lost 0.56% and the broader S&P 500 index dropped 0.33%.
The American market reacted on Wednesday to a new burst of economic indicators, including the first estimate of American growth published by the Department of Commerce.
In the three months from July to September, growth was 2.8% annualized, compared to 3% in the second quarter. That’s a little less than the 3% projected by economists.
The market also kept an eye on the 233,000 job creations in the private sector in October in the United States, according to the ADP firm, double the 115,000 anticipated.
This data “indicate fairly solid levels of economic activity”commented to AFP Patrick O’Hare, from Briefing.com.
Wall Street is now preparing for the publication on Thursday of the PCE price index, the inflation indicator favored by the American Federal Reserve (Fed), then for official employment figures on Friday.
This employment data could be “impacted” by the passage of hurricanes Helen and Milton, according to Adam Button of ForexLive, contrary to the ADP report which did not take them into account.
Uncertainties linked to the American election on November 5 are also weighing on the market, according to M O’Hare.
“This is the reason why there has been this oscillation (of the market) for several weeks, up one day, then down the next”added the analyst.
On the bond market, the yield on 10-year US government bonds ended at 4.27%, the same rate as the day before at the close.
On the business side, investors took into account new quarterly results on Wednesday, including those of Alphabet (+2.92%). Published after the close on Tuesday, the results of Google’s parent company far exceeded analysts’ expectations.
On Thursday, the market’s attention will focus on two other giants of the technology sector, namely Meta (-0.25% Wednesday) and Microsoft (+0.13% Wednesday), both of which published strong results on Wednesday. increase and better than expected.
In electronic trading after the close of the New York Stock Exchange, Microsoft shares gained 1.33% and Meta lost 0.88%.
The semiconductor group AMD plunged (-10.62%), taking with it the rest of the sector: Nvidia (-1.36%), Broadcom (-1.45%), Micron (-3.79). %), Intel (-2.66%) and Marvell Technology (-2.44%) all came out in the red.
Reddit (+41.97%) and Snap (+15.89%), the parent company of Snapchat, took off after good performances.
“At the same time, other results have not been as well received”remarked Mr. O’Hare.
Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar (-2.71%) retreated after seeing its turnover fall 4% to $16.11 billion, mainly “due to a drop in volumes” , depending on the group.
The Mexican fast food chain Chipotle (-7.87%) tumbled after results below estimates.
