(New York) Hesitant at the opening, the New York Stock Exchange is moving slightly in the red on Friday, tossed between decent banking results and mixed, even disappointing indicators.
The Dow Jones index fell 0.53%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ dropped 0.52%, and the S
The day before, the indices had concluded in the green, supported by a new sign of weakening US inflation.
The Dow Jones gained 1.14% to 34,029.69 points, the NASDAQ climbed 1.99% to 12,166.27 points and the S
Several major US banks on Friday unveiled comfortable results for the first quarter thanks in particular to the rise in interest rates, seeming to have been barely affected by the turmoil that shook the world of finance in early March.
But at the same time, a more than expected 1% decline in retail sales in March dampened investor enthusiasm somewhat.
“Retail sales were weak and disappointing in March,” largely due to lower gasoline costs but also a decline in auto sales, said Chris Low of FHN Financial.
Another index showed mixed activity for March, that of industrial production.
This rose to 0.4%, better than expected, but it was only thanks to the demand for heating which boosted the production index of public services while that of manufacturing production fell by 0, 5%.
Finally at 10 a.m. EST, the University of Michigan released its first estimate of U.S. consumer confidence for April.
This improved to 63.5 points (2.4%), to the surprise of analysts.
However, consumer expectations for the evolution of inflation have worsened. They now see price increases reaching 4.6% this year compared to their hopes of 3.6% last month.
This pessimism of Americans could therefore invite them to consume less in the future, which worried investors and immediately sent stock market indices into the red.
In terms of banking results, JPMorgan Chase posted record first-quarter revenue on the back of rising interest rates and saw its net profit jump.
Shares of the largest U.S. bank by asset size — which has, however, cautiously set aside an additional $1.1 billion to deal with potential customer defaults — were up 7% around 10:20 a.m. (Eastern time).
Citigroup was up nearly 3% after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter results, also benefiting from higher interest rates.
Wells Fargo oscillated between green and red at -0.48% after results that were better than expected.
Health insurance group United Health saw its stock fall 2.63% despite an increase in revenue and net earnings per share in the first quarter.
Elsewhere on the stock exchange, aircraft manufacturer Boeing squeezed the Dow Jones, dropping 6.85%.
The aircraft manufacturer warned Thursday that deliveries of its flagship aircraft, the medium-haul 737 MAX, would be temporarily disrupted for quality problems on parts supplied by Spirit Aerosystems. The stock of this provider fell 20%.
