(New York) The New York Stock Exchange closed in mixed order on Wednesday reacting little to the hike in Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rates widely anticipated by the markets.
After another quarter-percentage point hike in the Fed’s key rates, the Dow Jones index gained 0.23% to 35,520.12 points, marking its thirteenth consecutive positive session, the first since 36 years.
The NASDAQ lost 0.12% to 14,127.28 points and the S
“As everyone expected, the Fed raised rates by 25 basis points…but while Fed officials may be eyeing one final hike later this year, futures markets agree with us to say that we have reached the peak of the cycle” of hikes, said Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.
Overnight rates are now between 5.25% and 5.50% at their highest in 22 years.
However, for Joe Manimbo of Convera Financial Services, the Fed is keeping “its options very open” to decide whether or not to raise the cost of credit further to control inflation.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that the central bank would remain dependent on upcoming economic data and clarified that it had not yet decided whether or not to raise rates at the next meeting in September.
Investors are betting 75% on a status quo for rates in September, according to calculations by CME Group on futures products.
In the bond market, yields eased slightly. Those on two-year Treasury bills fell to 4.82% against 4.87% the previous day while those on ten years settled at 3.85% against 3.88%.
Listed, Boeing soared 8.72% to $232.80 after announcing a smaller loss than expected. The aircraft manufacturer posted a deficit of 149 million dollars, when analysts expected a loss of 212 million. In terms of turnover, the aircraft manufacturer exceeded the consensus with 19.75 billion dollars between April and June (18% over one year).
Coca-Cola’s stock gained 1.29% after announcing revenue up 6% from April to June to $12 billion. However, the group suffered from the unfavorable effect of exchange rates. The company saw its sales volumes stagnate, but it was helped by its policy of price increases.
Microsoft lost 3.76% to $337.77 after better-than-expected results that did not, however, hide a slowdown in business growth in the flagship cloud (remote computing) sector.
The software giant and one of the leaders in artificial intelligence posted profits of $20.1 billion on revenue of $56.2 billion in the fourth quarter, respectively year-on-year increases of 20% and 8 %. Fly in the ointment: the group has warned that its cloud business will not grow as quickly as in the past.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, climbed 5.59% to $129.66 after delighting the market with $74.6 billion in revenue and $18.4 billion in net profit in the second quarter.
Regional bank PacWest soared 26.92% to $9.76 after the announcement the day before of its takeover by Banc of California.
After the close, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) which ended up 1.39%, was still up 4.45% to $311 in electronic trading.
The group led by Mark Zuckerberg generated $32 billion in revenue in the second quarter, posting a net profit of $7.8 billion, better than expected results.
The Toronto Stock Exchange closed slightly higher on Wednesday as the Battery Metals, Industrials and Health Care sectors offset weakness in the Information Technology group, while major U.S. indexes ended the month. meeting in dispersed order.
The U.S. Federal Reserve hiked its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, echoing the Bank of Canada’s decision earlier in July. Central banks are thus continuing their fight against inflation.
The composite index S
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 82.05 points to 35,520.12 points, while the broader S index
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 75.64 US cents, down from 75.85 US cents on Tuesday.
On the New York Commodities Exchange, crude oil prices fell 85 cents US to US$78.78 per barrel, while natural gas fell 5 cents US to US$2.69 per million BTU .
The price of gold rose US$6.40 to US$1970.10 per ounce and that of copper depreciated US$1 cent to US$3.90 per pound.
