(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended a fourth straight positive session on Wednesday, helped by fresh signs of a cooling U.S. labor market.
The Dow Jones Index advanced 0.11% to 34,890.24 points. The tech-heavy NASDAQ gained 0.54% to 14,019.31 points. The extended index S
After a hitherto difficult month of August, Wall Street was able to post a fourth consecutive positive session on the back of new economic data below expectations which appeared to show “that the Fed’s restrictive policy (US central bank, editor’s note) cooling the world’s largest economy,” according to Convera Financial Services analyst Joe Manimbo.
Published before the market opened, the ADP/Stanford Lab survey of employment in the private sector in the United States showed a sharp deceleration in job creation in August, to 177,000, i.e. half as much as in July, and below expectations.
Another number caught the attention of investors: the downward revision of US GDP growth in the second quarter, to 2.1% at an annualized rate instead of 2.4% in the first estimate.
Markets have been “cautiously bullish,” commented Interactive Brokers economist Jose Torres.
“Optimism that a looser labor market could help dampen inflationary pressures was reinforced with ADP’s report showing that job growth slowed significantly in August,” he explained. .
The data came out two days before Friday’s release of the official US jobs report for August. Previously, on Thursday, household income and expenditure will be published for July, but above all inflation according to the PCE index, the Fed’s favorite measure.
“If there is a trend of lower hiring and fewer job openings, the Fed will be more comfortable ending the cycle of monetary tightening,” commented Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.
Bond yields, which had fallen sharply on Tuesday on the news of a sharp reduction in the number of job vacancies (JOLTS survey) in the United States in July, remained around their lowest levels in three weeks. The ten-year yield remained at 4.11%.
The dollar weakened further to a two-week low against the euro.
On the odds, the technology was buoyed by a return from Nvidia, the designer of the super-powerful chips sought for artificial intelligence, which took almost 1%.
Some tech mega-caps drove the NASDAQ, such as Apple (1.92%), Netflix (1.09%) or Alphabet (1.06%).
Customer relations software giant Salesforce (1.45%) soared 5.91% in e-commerce after the close as it raised its full-year sales and profit forecast. The group posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit and an increase in revenue to $8.60 billion.
Nikola, the electric truck maker that temporarily halted sales of some vehicles after a battery recall, fell 2.31% to $1.27.
The title of the wholesale chain Costo evolved without much amplitude (0.27% after a stable closing) before the publication of its quarterly results.
