Wall Street opens lower, market still feverish

(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened in the red on Friday, on renewed investor trepidation over banking system instability, with First Republic and other regional institutions plunging again.

Around 10:25 a.m., the Dow Jones was down 1.07%, the NASDAQ index was down 0.30%, and the broader S

Wall Street ended Thursday’s session with a bang, enthused by the intervention of a group of large American banks, which will deposit $ 30 billion in the coffers of First Republic, considered the new weak link in the system.

The euphoria was short-lived and the indices quickly showed signs of running out of steam in post-close electronic trading.

“The question now is whether it’s going to be enough,” Quincy Krosby of LPL Financial asked of the big-name local boost to First Republic. “Questions remain about the soundness of the financial system. »

Rising by more than 10% the day before after having lost up to 36% in session, First Republic was again in dire straits and fell by 20.43% shortly after the opening.

Other regional and medium-sized brands were targeted, such as the Californian PacWest (-12.14%), Western Alliance (-12.49%), headquartered in Phoenix (Arizona) or the Texan Comerica (-8.91%).

The big banks were also in turmoil, like Goldman Sachs (-3.11) and JPMorgan Chase (also -3.77%), which dragged the Dow Jones down.

The VIX index, which measures market volatility, was up more than 4%.

Friday is a so-called “four witches day”, which corresponds to the expiry of several trillions of dollars of derivative products based on stock market indices or individual stocks.

This deadline often adds volatility to Wall Street in the current session.

Another indicator of traders’ anxiety, the acquisition prices of US Treasuries were skyrocketing, driving down their rates, with the two moving in opposite directions.

The yield on 10-year US government bonds fell to 3.42% from 3.57% the previous day.

Despite the rise in bond rates and the tension of investors, the technological giants were in the green, like Alphabet (0.87%) and Microsoft (2.04%), the day after the announcement of the integration of new artificial intelligence tools in several of its software.

Graphics card maker Nvidia was also at the party (2.63%), helped by an increase in recommendation from Morgan Stanley bank analysts.

FedEx paraded (8.16%) after raising its forecast for the whole year, despite a disappointment in its turnover for the third quarter of its staggered fiscal year (from June to May). The group expects to have reduced its workforce by 25,000 positions over a year by the end of May.

The courier group took in its wake its competitor UPS (0.41%).

Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng advanced (10.65%), despite posting a larger-than-expected quarterly loss and lower-than-expected revenue. The group nevertheless expressed confidence in the resumption of its growth.

Its competitor Tesla fell (-1.53%), as did other manufacturers of electric vehicles such as Rivian (-3.08%) or Lucid (-2.30%).

Against all expectations, bitcoin pranced (6.45%), although it is theoretically considered a risky asset. In its wake, stocks linked to the cryptocurrency sector gained ground, such as the “mining” specialist Riot Platforms (9.81%) or the exchange platform Coinbase (8.00%).