(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Friday, concerned by the start of the strike initiated by the three main American automobile manufacturers and its potential consequences on the American economy.
Around 9:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones was down 0.23%, the NASDAQ index was down 0.82% and the broader S index was down 0.82%.
After a renewed sense of optimism on Thursday, thanks to indicators deemed satisfactory and the successful IPO of microprocessor giant Arm, Wall Street quickly became disillusioned.
“We’re focusing on the UAW [main auto sector union] strike and the impact it will have on the economy,” said Edward Moya of Oanda.
In the absence of agreement on the renewal of their collective agreement, members of the UAW employees of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis began a strike movement during the night of Thursday to Friday.
“We expect this strike to last at least until the end of next week,” according to Edward Moya. “There is no reason to hope for an agreement in the near future. »
The sites affected by walkouts on Friday represent only 12,700 employees, only a fraction of the 146,000 members of the union within the “Big Three”, the three major American manufacturers, who had never experienced a simultaneous strike.
Despite the strike, Stellantis (1.43%), GM (1.90%) and Ford (0.55%) were all up, an increase to be put into perspective by the recent activity of these stocks, which are practically standing still. since the start of the year in a clearly rising market.
For Edward Moya, this blockage, the crux of which is largely due to the refusal of Detroit’s historic manufacturers to grant the UAW the approximately 40% wage increase demanded, shows that “there is still a lot elements likely to fuel inflation.
This pressure on wages “could push the Fed [American central bank] in one direction”, that of even greater monetary tightening, “when people thought we were done”.
Announced as decelerating for months, even on the verge of a recession, the American economy refuses to bend, according to the indicators published in recent weeks.
On Friday, the Fed reported that industrial production rose 0.4% in August from a month ago, more than the 0.1% expected by economists.
Furthermore, manufacturing activity in the New York region recovered significantly in September, to 1.9 points compared to -19 points in August, while economists predicted a further contraction (-10 points).
In the process, bond rates rose. The yield on one-year US government bonds stood at 4.30%, up from 4.28%.
Rate tensions penalized the giant technology stocks on the NASDAQ, including Amazon (-1.85%), Meta (-1.78%) and Microsoft (-1.60%).
The day after its IPO, which saw it gain nearly 25% during the session, the microprocessor designer Arm was still gaining ground (3.26%). The British group is now valued at $67 billion.
Despite results above expectations, professional software publisher Adobe fell into the red (-4.16%), investors having judged the group’s forecasts disappointing, even if they came out in line with those of analysts.
Adobe, which launched several versions of its software on Wednesday now using generative artificial intelligence (AI), suffers from comparison with other major AI players, who are showing higher growth.
Disney was sought after (1.60%), the day after the publication of information from the Bloomberg agency, according to which the entertainment giant would consider the sale of the large national channel ABC to the media group Nexstar Media Group. According to several media, the Burbank (California) group also received an offer from media mogul Byron Allen to the tune of ten billion dollars.