The Dow Jones fell by 0.61%, the Nasdaq by 0.32% and the broader S&P 500 index by 0.39%.
The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Tuesday, showing signs of feverishness before the decision of the American central bank (Fed) on Wednesday, with operators questioning the market’s ability to move forward.
The Dow Jones fell 0.61%, the Nasdaq index fell 0.32% and the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.39%.
This was the ninth negative session in a row for the Dow Jones, a sequence that the New York market had not experienced since 1978.
“The Dow has no meaning,” argues Kim Forrest, of Bokeh Capital Partners, due to the composition of the index but also the system which assigns to each member a weight corresponding to the price of its share and not to its market capitalization.
A good part of the Dow Jones’s bad luck is thus attributable to the setbacks of the UnitedHealth group, which continues to suffer following the murder of the boss of its health insurance subsidiary UnitedHealthcare.
By far the largest weighting of the Dow Jones until now, the stock has dragged the entire index with it even though its capitalization is much lower than that of other members.
“I don’t think any professional pays attention” to the Dow Jones, insists Kim Forrest, while recognizing that the index remains important in the eyes of many small investors and most of the media.
If the indices started the session in the red, for José Torres, of Interactive Brokers, the trend was affirmed after the Ministry of Commerce revealed that retail sales had increased by 0.7% in November on a months, more than the 0.5% expected by economists.
For the analyst, the vitality of consumption in the United States weighs on expectations in terms of monetary policy and reduces the number of rate cuts expected by the end of next year.
Operators now attribute a probability of almost 40% to the scenario including a single additional cut until 2026 after the expected one on Wednesday, at the end of the last Fed meeting this year.
“Some of the data we see is confusing,” says Kim Forrest. “Should we focus on persistent inflation or consumer strength?”
When in doubt, according to her, “some get back part of their investment”.
On the Nasdaq side, the increasingly marked decline of the champion of artificial intelligence (AI) Nvidia (-1.22%) “affects the entire market, because it is a significant capitalization,” recalls the manager.
Nvidia has lost more than 12% since the beginning of November.
Tuesday, in addition to Nvidia, the microprocessor sector was weighed down by Broadcom (-3.91%) or Marvell Technologies (-10.04%).
“It’s just a pause,” argues Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management, who said Wall Street could revive if the Fed’s updated projections on Wednesday included further rate cuts next year. .
On the market, the Teva laboratory was catapulted (+26.47%) by results considered encouraging from clinical trials relating to a new treatment against intestinal inflammation, developed jointly with Sanofi.
Another pharmaceutical group, the American Pfizer (+4.67%), took advantage of forecasts which count on a 2025 turnover in the same range as that of the current financial year, for which it confirmed on Tuesday its projection.
Investors were also sensitive to the objective of an increase in net profit per share excluding exceptional items for the next financial year.
The days follow one another and are similar for Tesla (+3.64%), levitating since the electoral victory of Donald Trump, to whom the boss of the car manufacturer, Elon Musk, is close.
