Wall Street ends in disorganized order, new record for the NASDAQ

(Washington) The New York Stock Exchange ended in mixed order on Wednesday, generally relieved by US inflation figures in line with expectations, and supported by part of the technology sector.

The NASDAQ index (+1.49%) recorded a new closing record, the Dow Jones finished near balance at -0.02% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.78%.

“Investors are reacting positively to the latest inflation data,” Adam Sarhan, analyst at 50 Park Investments, commented to AFP.

The CPI consumer price index showed on Wednesday a further acceleration in inflation in November in the United States, for the second month in a row, to 2.7% year-on-year against 2.6% in October.

Over one month alone, the increase in consumer prices is also higher in November than in October, at 0.3% compared to 0.2%, due in particular to changes in housing and food prices, announced the US Department of Labor.

These developments are in line with analysts’ expectations, according to the Market Watch consensus.

“This gives the Fed more room to continue to […] “cut rates and that allows the economy to grow without the threat of inflation picking up, which is good for profits and for stocks,” according to Mr. Sarhan.

Nearly 95% of market participants expect the US central bank (Fed) to cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point after its next meeting on December 17-18, according to the assessment from CME Group.

Wall Street is now awaiting the PPI producer price index and the European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy meeting on Thursday.

On the bond market, the yield on 10-year US government bonds rose to 4.26%, compared to 4.22% the day before at the close.

In terms of values, “the gains of large caps and chip manufacturers supported the entire equity market,” observed Patrick O’Hare, analyst at Briefing.com, in a note.

Money is again flowing into the sectors that have led all year, and the (tech-heavy) NASDAQ is one of the strongest sectors,” Sarhan said.

The semiconductor giants shone, like Nvidia (+3.12%), Micron (+4.03), or AMD (+1.91%).

Another big name in the sector, Broadcom soared (+6.57%) following press information according to which the group would work with Apple to develop a chip designed for artificial intelligence (AI).

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, gained ground (+5.46%) after announcing on Wednesday the arrival of Gemini 2.0, a new family of generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, supposed to make it possible to create AI agents. capable of not only answering users’ questions, but also acting on their behalf.

Tesla’s stock soared to its highest level (+5.93%), reaching $424.77 at the close. The group of billionaire Elon Musk, who showed his support for Donald Trump during his electoral campaign, has been sought after the victory of the Republican candidate in the American presidential election.

The weather has clouded over for the American automobile giant General Motors (-1.33%) due to the group’s announcement on Tuesday to abandon the robot taxi activity of its subsidiary Cruise to concentrate on the development of advanced driver assistance systems for cars sold to individuals.

The American department store giant Macy’s fell (-0.84%) after publishing quarterly results below analysts’ expectations.

The group announced on November 25 that it would delay the publication of its quarterly results after discovering that a former employee had concealed more than $150 million in delivery costs over three years through a set of accounting entries.