(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened modestly in the green on Wednesday, trying to stay in positive territory for the 4th session in a row, after the release of economic data showing a slowdown in job creation in the private sector.
The Dow Jones Index gained 0.41%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ advanced 0.54% and the S
The day before, after a decline in bond rates, the Dow Jones had gained 0.85% to 34,852.67 points, the NASDAQ had advanced by 1.74% to 13,943.76 points and the broader index S
“The market has had a nice run over the past three sessions with gains across the board,” noted Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare, noting however that the lack of trading volume in the week leading up to the long Labor Day weekend accentuates the movement of the indices.
Ahead of Wednesday’s market open, the ADP/Stanford Lab survey of private sector employment in the United States in August showed a sharp deceleration in job creation to 177,000, half of July’s level, and below expectations.
“After two years of exceptionally high creation linked to the recovery, we are moving towards more sustainable growth in wages and employment,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.
These figures are released ahead of the official jobs report on Friday, but are rarely a reliable projection of official numbers, analysts point out.
However, according to Patrick O’Hare, the key to the ADP report “is slowing the increase in compensation to ‘5.9% year on year, the lowest pace since October 2021.’
A second estimate of US GDP for the 2nd quarter has also been published, showing a small downward revision with 2.1% growth at an annualized rate instead of 2.4% for the first estimate.
Here too, we note a downward estimate of quarterly inflation, with the PCE price index rising by 2.5% instead of 2.6%.
“That fits well with a soft landing scenario. These downward revisions to the price index are something that will continue to persuade markets that the Fed can avoid raising rates again.
The bond market continued to relax, with two-year rates slipping to 4.85% from 4.89% the previous day, ten-year rates remaining around 4.11%.
On Thursday, the markets will be watching for a new inflation figure with, for July, the PCE price index, the US central bank’s favorite barometer for measuring price trends.
On the odds, some technology megacaps drove the NASDAQ, such as Apple (1.19%), Netflix (0.91%) or Alphabet (0.55%).
Nikola, the electric truck maker that temporarily halted sales of some vehicles after a battery recall, was down 4.6% to $1.24.
The title of the wholesale chain Costco moved without much amplitude (-0.29%) before the publication of its quarterly results after the market close, as did the action of the customer management software giant Salesforce ( 0.55%).
