(New York) The New York Stock Exchange is trading higher on Thursday, on course for a rebound from the previous day’s fall and digesting the US central bank (Fed) meeting.
The Dow Jones Index gained 0.80%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ 1.75% and the S Index
The day before, after the announcement of another rate hike of a quarter of a percentage point, the Dow Jones index had ended down 1.63% at 32,030.11 points, the NASDAQ had dropped 1, 60% to 11,669.96 points and the S
The Fed raised interest rates by just a quarter of a percentage point and, more importantly, signaled that it only considered one more such hike in the short term, which seemed to calm the markets THURSDAY.
Wall Street’s reaction was initially ambivalent, as Fed boss Jerome Powell pointed out that the recent banking crisis had tightened financial conditions and acted as another rate hike, if not more.
“Such a tightening of financial conditions goes in the same direction as a tightening of rates. You can see it as the equivalent of a rate hike or maybe more than that,” Powell said during his press conference.
After the Federal Reserve, the Swiss National Bank announced a 50 basis point rate hike to 1.50%, as expected, and affirmed that the country’s banking crisis was over. The Bank of England (BoE) also raised its key rate on Thursday for the 11th consecutive time (0.25 points to 4.25%).
Investors were also disappointed Wednesday by comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
In front of the US Senate, Ms. Yellen asserted that there were no plans to significantly increase bank deposit coverage, currently limited to $250,000, as was done when two regional banks, including Silicon Valley Bank, went bankrupt.
On Thursday, a jobs indicator lifted the market’s spirits with weekly jobless claims filings remaining well below 200,000 at 191,000, contrary to expectations.
This shows that the job market remains buoyant despite announcements of layoffs in the technology sector.
As for the real estate market, sales of new homes rose slightly in February to 640,000 on an annual basis. However, they remain down 19% year-on-year.
On the coast, nine sectors out of the eleven in the S
Thus the big names in technology, such as Meta, Google, Microsoft advanced by 2% to 3%.
The group of Jack Dorsey, Block (formerly Square) fell by 17.34%, attacked by the investment fund Hindenburg Research. In a document published on Thursday, Hindenburg argues that Block has “deceived investors by publishing overstated data” regarding the number of its users.
Co-founded in 2009 by the co-creator and former boss of Twitter Jack Dorsey, Block, which notably owns the Cash App application, is dedicated to financial transactions, ranging from payment at merchants to payments between individuals.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase tumbled almost 16% amid threats of lawsuits from the stock market watchdog, the SEC, for violating securities law.
In the bond market, yields on 10-year Treasury bills edged up to 3.46% from 3.43% on Wednesday.
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