(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Friday, rather pleased with US employment figures, which show a gradual slowdown, even if inflation is slow to come into line.
Around 10 a.m., the Dow Jones was up 0.34%, the NASDAQ index was up 0.34% and the broader index S
The US economy added 187,000 jobs in July, less than the 200,000 expected by economists. Separately, May and June figures were revised down by a total of 49,000 jobs.
“The post-COVID-19 catch-up effect is over” in the labor market, “and cycle reversal pressure is now the dominant force,” Pantheon Macroeconomics economist Ian Shepherdson commented in a note.
Oanda analyst Edward Moya says the job market is “softening, which will likely contribute to a general slowdown” in the US economy by the end of the year, without destabilizing it , which the market sees favorably.
Shadow on the board, the higher than expected increase in the average salary, of 0.4% over one month against 0.3% in June, a negative signal on the inflation front.
In the wake of the publication of the US employment figures, bond rates fell, a sign of an easing after the rise of the last few days.
The yield on 10-year US government bonds was 4.11%, compared to 4.18% the day before closing.
On the stock market, the NASDAQ was driven by Amazon, which took off (9.36%) after smashing expectations for its quarterly profit and doing better than expected on turnover.
Still supported by its remote computing activity (cloud), Amazon Web Services (AWS), the group has communicated forecasts significantly higher than analysts’ projections for the current quarter.
Amazon took, in its wake, the other flagships of artificial intelligence, Alphabet (1.22%) and Microsoft (1.17%).
Among the tech behemoths, Apple (-3.19%) has done the worst this season, with revenue down (-1.4%) for the third quarter of in a row, weighed down by the slowdown in iPhone sales (-2.4%).
While it benefited from a further acceleration of its services activity (App Store, Apple Music, cloud), Apple also suffered from an air pocket for Macs and iPads.
Now part of the “Meme Stocks” club, the favorite stocks of a few individual shareholders determined to support them against all odds, the venerable Tupperware was in orbit (45.17%), after the announcement of the restructuring of more than half a billion dollars of its debt.
The Coinbase cryptocurrency trading platform advanced (1.19%) after the publication of a new quarterly loss, which was nevertheless lower than feared by analysts.
The advertising display company Outfront Media unscrewed (-14.20%) due to its caution over the performance of the current quarter, affected by disappointing activity in public transport.
Activist investor Carl Icahn’s company, Icahn Enterprises, also fell (-26.25%) as its founder announced the dividend cut and a strategic shift, marking the end of recently largely losing bets on the direction of markets.
Electric truck maker Nikola also swerved (-12.96%) due to the announcement of the departure of its CEO, Michael Lohscheller, as well as the validation by shareholders of the issuance of new securities. .
The Amgen laboratory pranced (4.93%) after raising its forecast for the current financial year and having made optimistic comments on the completion of the takeover of Horizon, despite opposition from the American Competition Authority, the FTC.