(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher on Thursday, spurred by Meta earnings that extended the tech sector’s strong streak, while today’s macro data preserves the soft landing hypothesis for the American economy.
The Dow Jones gained 1.57%, the NASDAQ index gained 2.43% and the broad index S
The session was launched by the quarterly results, published the day before, of Meta (13.69%), which broke from January to March with three quarters of contraction in its turnover by posting a 3% increase in its revenues over one year: a feat in a context of increased competition.
The group has also revised downwards, for the second time, its estimate of total costs for the current financial year, thanks to a major savings plan, which notably includes the elimination of 21,000 positions, or 24% of the workforce.
Meta’s stunt benefited the entire tech sector, whether Alphabet (3.67%) and Microsoft (3.23%), which had already surprised Wall Street on Tuesday, or Amazon (4.61%). ), the results of which were published Thursday after the close.
Overall, the New York Stock Exchange breathed “a sigh of relief” as tech giant caps were doing well, according to B. Riley Wealth Management analyst Art Hogan.
For Ed Moya, of Oanda, the momentum was also supported by a lull on the banking front, which was entitled to a respite after two turbulent days.
Pounded since Monday, the American regional bank First Republic has rebounded by 8.79%. Since the start of the banking crisis, the San Francisco establishment has nevertheless lost almost 95% of its stock market value and remains in very great difficulty.
The New York market also welcomed the contrasting macroeconomic indicators of the day.
On the one hand, growth slowed to 1.1% year on year in the first quarter in the United States, much less than the 2.0% expected by economists.
However, looking at the figures in detail, the latter noted that consumption had remained sustained, the slowdown in growth being mainly linked to the decision of many companies not to replenish their stocks.
In addition, a much more recent data, that of new weekly jobless claims, came out lower and significantly below projections, “which reminds us that the labor market is still tight”, commented, in a note, Oxford Economics.
Wall Street emerged “optimistic about a gradual slowdown in the economy and inflation,” according to Edward Moya, even though growth data pointed to higher-than-expected inflation in the first quarter.
This scenario appears more favorable than feared in recent weeks, which has pushed bond rates up. The yield on 10-year US government bonds was 3.53%, down from 3.44% the previous day.
“I think we’re going into a recession late this year, or early next year, but it’s going to be moderate,” said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital, who “a lot is going to depend on the job market. “. “If he holds up, we should be fine.” »
On the stock market, American Airlines (1.10%) rose after posting better-than-expected results, accompanied by encouraging comments on the robustness of demand.
Its competitor Southwest Airlines, on the other hand, fell (-3.20%), weighed down by the consequences of the cancellation of hundreds of its flights in December, which cut its results by 380 million dollars, with, in addition, a slowdown in bookings in January and February.
Merck Laboratories (1.69%) capitalized on raising its full-year forecast, buoyed by sales of its Keytruda cancer treatment and vaccines.
Another pharmaceutical group to have increased its annual projections despite falling sales, Eli Lilly (3.74%), which is counting in particular on favorable exchange rate effects with the weakening of the dollar.
The driver assistance and autonomous driving specialist Mobileye plunged (-16.13%), after having revised its annual forecast downwards due to an anticipated slowdown in sales of its flagship SuperVision software in China.