(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Friday, shocked by the announcement of a job creation figure in the United States representing almost double forecasts, raising fears of a new turn of the screw. the American central bank (Fed).
In early trading, the Dow Jones lost 0.16%, the NASDAQ index lost 0.70% and the broader S index
The U.S. economy created 336,000 jobs in September, nearly double the 170,000 expected by economists.
The surprise is all the greater as many investors expected a figure lower than forecast, based on the ADP report which reported on Wednesday only 89,000 job creations in the private sector, compared to 160,000. expected.
In addition, the Ministry of Labor revised upwards the data from the previous two months, adding 119,000 net creations.
“This acceleration (227,000 job creations in August) which adds income and stimulates demand and growth will pose a problem for the Fed”, the American central bank, commented Rubeela Farooqi, of High Frequency Economics, in a note .
The economist noted the deceleration in wage growth (4.2% year-on-year versus 4.3% in August), while Peter Boockvar of Bleakley Advisory Group pointed out that much of the surprise came from of the civil service, both putting the significance of the figure into perspective a little.
But the market has “become afraid”, according to Quincy Krosby of LPL Financial, with operators fearing a tightening by the Fed, which could stifle American economic activity, even if its monetary tightening has so far only produced effects at the margin. “There was a massive sales movement. »
The job creation figure “is good news for the economy, but, in the market’s mind, it translates into the idea that the Fed will be ready to raise its key rate once again, and certainly not lowering it anytime soon,” Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare said in a note.
The reaction was immediate on the bond market, which started to soar again, after a lull on Wednesday and Thursday.
The yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds set a new 16-year high at 4.8852%. Its thirty-year equivalent also went higher than it had since 2007, to 5.05%.
On the market, Pioneer Natural Resources, one of the shale oil giants in the United States, jumped (9.40% to 235.17 dollars) following information from the Wall Street Journal reporting a possible takeover by ExxonMobil, for around $60 billion. The group’s market capitalization is around $50 billion.
The operation would give ExxonMobil a new foothold in the Permian Basin, an immense oil-rich region that covers west Texas and southeast New Mexico.
Cinema operator AMC advanced (4.58% to $8.68). The group from Leawood (Kansas) indicated Thursday evening, after Bourse, that pre-sales of the film Taylor Swift – The Eras Tour, filmed during three concerts of the singer, had exceeded 100 million dollars, unheard of for a feature film of this genre.
Jeans legend Levi Strauss was punished (-4.54% to 12.61 dollars) after having once again lowered, Thursday after the stock market, its forecasts for annual turnover, now between stability and growth of 1% on a year.
The Amgen laboratory lost 0.31% to $264.47 after announcing the finalization of its acquisition of the pharmaceutical company Horizon Therapeutics, for approximately $27.8 billion.
