The new York Stock Exchange opened on Monday, investors trying to sell their shares massively to take advantage of their capital gains after several increasing sessions, and being cautious a few days before the meeting of the American Central Bank (Fed).
Around 2:05 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones fell 0.23%, the NASDAQ index lost 0.73%and the enlarged index S&P 500 released 0.71%.
market players are particularly looking to garner some profits “after nine consecutive days of increase in the S&P 500 index, which had not happened for 20 years,” said AFP Sam Stovall.
At the end on Friday, the New York Stock Exchange’s reference index had erased all of its losses since April 2, when Donald Trump announced a wave of prohibitive customs duties targeting Washington’s business partners.
Last week, “we have received comments full of hope saying that the United States is open to negotiations, that China will probably end up negotiating or sitting at the negotiating table,” recalls Sam Stovall, which had pushed the American square.
As long as an agreement will not be reached between the first two global economic powers, “the market will remain very volatile”, anticipates the analyst, stressing, however, that investors have mostly “already integrated into the price of equity” the possibility of a lack of agreement.
During an interview broadcast on American television on Sunday, Donald Trump defended his trade war, saying that he had “managed to lower prices”.
“We have essentially broken trade relations (with China, editor’s note) by imposing such high customs duties,” recalled the tenant of the White House.
“And it does not matter,” he added, however, wanting to lower these surcharges “at some point”.
The American president said that the United States was in “a transition period” and that the country will later experience “the biggest economic boom in history” thanks to its political choices.
In the middle of the week, Wall Street’s attention will turn to the new federal reserve meeting.
Despite Donald Trump’s repeated calls for a drop in rate, the outcome of this meeting is hardly in doubt in the vast majority of finance players.
The monetary institution should leave its rates at the level which has been theirs since December, in a range between 4.25% and 4.50%.
The markets are likely to “not have much to get into the tooth” because “the president of the Fed, Jerome Powell, will probably rehearse what was said at the March meeting about the uncertainty of economic growth and customs duties”, anticipates Sam Stovall.
On the indicators side, activity in the United States services progressed in April, beyond expectations, according to the ISM index published on Monday.
On the bond market, the interest rate of American state loans at ten years was clearly tied at 4.35%, against 4.31% on Friday at the end.
On the table of values, the giants of entertainment were struggling after the announcement by Donald Trump “of customs duties of 100%” on the films broadcast in the United States but produced abroad. Netflix released 2.42%, Warner Bros Discovery 2.28%, AMC 1.50%, Amazon 2.02%and Disney 0.90%.
The Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, which has dozens of companies, from Duracell batteries to the American insurer Geico, was clearly retreating (-5.52%) after the announcement by Warren Buffett from his departure from the post of Director General at the end of the year. Replaced by his right arm Greg Abel, Mr. Buffett will retain his role as chairman of the board of directors of his group.
The Skechers sports shoe seller leapped (+25.18%) after the announcement of his acquisition by the 3G capital investment company, and therefore his withdrawal.
