Stock futures flat following best weekly rally of 2019; Boeing drags on Dow
March 18, 2019Wall Street inches higher ahead of Fed policy meeting
March 18, 2019Wall Street finished in disarray Thursday, after hesitating the whole session between Chinese statistics deemed disappointing, uncertainties related to the trade war and a vote of the British Parliament in favor of a postponement of Brexit. According to final closing results, Wall Street’s flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gained 0.03% to finish at 25,709.94 points. The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, lost 0.16% to 7,630.91 points and the expanded index S & P 500 lost 0.09% to 2,808.48 points. The markets did not fluctuate much throughout the session, only reacting in a measured way to the international context. “We felt the hesitation of brokers” after information from the Bloomberg agency saying that the summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, initially expected in March, would be postponed to April, said Peter Cardillo, Spartan Capital. In addition to news related to the trade war, China has also led some movements on the indices after the publication of statistics deemed disappointing on its industrial production for the first two months of the year. It has been at a higher level for the last ten years, and has confirmed a little more the breathlessness of the Asian giant, the world’s second largest economy. In the United States, the indicators also did not inspire much optimism for brokers, with new home sales falling sharply in January and weekly claims for unemployment benefits rising. The vote of the British deputies for a postponement of the date of the Brexit was also followed, without reacting strongly to Wall Street. “The potential extension of the Brexit deadline will bring some additional uncertainty to investors,” Cardillo said.
Tesla unveils its Model Y – Among the values of the day, General Electric, in full restructuring, said Thursday anticipate an annual operating profit below expectations, but hopes a stabilization of the situation from 2020 and an improvement in 2021. The title has taken 2.79% . Facebook dropped 1.85%. The social networking giant began Thursday to restore its services after suffering a giant blackout on its network. The group is also under criminal investigation in New York over its data sharing, according to the US press. Boeing lost 1.02%. The black boxes of the Boeing 737 MAX which crashed Sunday in Ethiopia were received in France by a specialized agency charged to extract the data for the Ethiopian investigators, following the crash and the immobilization of all aircraft of the same model in the world. The course of the aircraft manufacturer has lost more than 15% since the beginning of the month. Tesla gained 0.35%. The electric vehicle manufacturer has announced the appointment of a new in-house chief financial officer, Zachary Kirkhorn, to replace Deepak Ahuja, who unexpectedly left his post at the end of January. The group led by Elon Musk was also to unveil Thursday in California its Model Y, a 4X4 leisure. On the bond market, the interest rate on the ten-year debt was near its level of the previous day, at 2.625% around 20:45 GMT, against 2,621% Wednesday night. That on the 30-year debt rose to 3.043%, against 3.016% at the previous closing. Nasdaq alb / DGA
Ali Bekhtaoui
Financial market reporter
Agence France Presse