The New York Stock Exchange, which began the session hesitantly, concluded clearly in the green on Thursday, supported by a decline in bond rates after stronger than expected weekly job demands in the United States.
The Dow Jones signed its sixth positive session in a row, gaining 0.85% to 39,387.76 points. The technology-dominated Nasdaq advanced 0.27% to 16,346.26 points and the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.51% to 5,214.08 points.
“We had a nice recovery this session. This is mainly due to the fact that weekly applications for unemployment benefits increased, which helped to bring down bond rates,” explained Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
Weekly applications for unemployment benefits in the United States jumped to their highest level in nine months at 231,000, while analysts expected 214,000 new applications.
These data paradoxically gave some relief to the heart of the stock market, which was positioned to start falling after several disappointing company results.
An increase in jobless claims “could be a sign that labor market conditions are softening,” said Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics.
Slowing down the job market is one of the objectives of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) in its fight against overheating and inflation. This reassures the stock market which projects at least one rate cut by the end of the year.
Bond rates eased significantly to 4.45% compared to 4.49% for the ten-year rate.
Another factor that lowered rates and restored luster to stocks, an issue of 30-year Treasury bonds for $25 billion was well subscribed. “The demand for these bonds was a little above average, this relieved pressure on the bond market,” commented Peter Cardillo.
On the value side, the securities of several companies were sanctioned after disappointing results or prospects.
This is the case of the accommodation reservation platform Airbnb which fell 6.87% to 147.05 dollars while it forecasts sales lower than what analysts expected for the second quarter at 2.68 billion dollars minimum.
The company, however, claims to be experiencing “robust demand for travel” in particular with the Olympic Games being held this summer in Paris.
The British group Arm, a subsidiary of the Japanese SoftBank and champion of microprocessor architectures, slipped 2.34%.
Its quarterly result exceeded expectations with sales of 928 million dollars when analysts were betting on 866 million. But its projections for the year disappointed investors.
The video game platform Roblox collapsed by 22.06% to $30.42, while it revised downwards its activity forecasts for the year, raising doubts about the consumer’s enthusiasm in general.
In the first quarter, the company nevertheless saw its loss decrease and its turnover increased from 655 million dollars a year ago to 801 million.
Bank securities concluded in the green like Bank of America (+1.54%) or Citigroup (+0.92%) while for the first time in five weeks, the rates on 30-year mortgage loans – the norm in the United States – have fallen, which may revive demand for loans.
The very volatile action of Donald Trump’s media company, DJT, soared 10.41% to $54.39, after announcing that it had appointed a new auditor. Its previous auditor had been blacklisted by the stock market watchdog, the SEC, for fraud.
The Spanish construction giant Ferrovial got off to a difficult start with its listing in New York, dropping 17.10% to $40.
- Nasdaq
