(New York) The New York Stock Exchange traded slightly in the green on Thursday, attempting to end the month with a fifth consecutive session of gains.
The Dow Jones Index was up 0.23%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ was up 0.40% and the S
The day before, the Dow Jones had advanced 0.11% to 34,890.24 points. The NASDAQ, with strong technological coloring, had taken 0.54% to 14,019.31 points and the S
These successive gains helped Wall Street to reduce its losses in August, historically very often a delicate month for the markets. Over the month, the Dow Jones is down more than 1% while the NASDAQ and the broader index are down almost 2%.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department released the statement of household spending and income for July, which showed an increase in spending (0.8%), which was stronger than expected.
The PCE inflation index based on these consumer spending came out as expected at 0.2% over the month. Over one year, the rise in prices however accelerated to 3.3% against 3% in June, according to this barometer preferred by the Federal Reserve (Fed) to gauge the evolution of prices.
Excluding volatile energy and food prices, so-called core inflation is also accelerating, to 4.2% over one year from 4.1% in June, while the Fed wants to bring this measure at 2%.
Ben Ayers, an economist at Nationwide, said rising prices for services in particular “challenges the idea that the slowdown is at work and may worry Fed officials ahead of the committee meeting. monetary policy from the central bank in September”.
“Less strained data in the August jobs report due on Friday and with the CPI inflation in a few weeks will be vital to dissuade the Fed from raising interest rates further,” warned the Economist.
Michael Pearce of Oxford Economics expects consumer momentum to “start to wane in the coming months, coupled with an easing in the labor market.” “We continue to believe that a mild recession over the coming quarters is likely,” he added.
The PMI index of activity in the industrial region of Chicago improved in August (48.7 points against 4.28 the month before) but remains in recession.
Weekly jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 228,000.
On the bond market, ten-year rates remained stable at 4.11%.
The actions were encouraged by some good results.
Salesforce, the customer relationship software giant, posted stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue and raised its full-year sales forecast to $34.8 billion, driven in particular by the development of the ‘artificial intelligence. The stock rose 5.59%.
The title Shopify was highly sought after (8.14%), after the group of services dedicated to e-commerce reached an agreement with Amazon to use its logistics network.
Discount chain Dollar General’s stock tumbled more than 17% after, like many retailers, the group slashed its sales and profit outlook for the year, again citing a more cautious consumer and an upsurge in theft. Its competitor Dollar Tree lost 2.85%.