Wall Street ends up slightly, after three sessions of decline

The New York Stock Exchange concluded on Wednesday up slightly in a very thin market, pending the conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole and after three sessions of decline.

According to final results, the Dow Jones index gained 0.18% to 32,969.23 points, the technology-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.41% to 12,431.53 points and the S&P 500 rose 0, 29% to 4,140.77 points.

“The market saw a small rebound, perhaps a sigh of relief before (Fed Chairman) Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday and after several bear sessions,” said Spartan Capital’s Peter Cardillo.

Since the beginning of the week, the markets have been waiting for the intervention of the boss of the American central bank, scheduled for Friday at 2:00 p.m. GMT at the podium of the annual symposium of central bankers in Jackson Hole (Wyoming).

Investors hope to detect a clue to future monetary policy: will the Fed commit to continuing to raise rates sharply to fight inflation at the risk of accentuating a slowdown that is looming in the world or could she point out the possibility later of a change of tone for a more flexible policy?

“The Fed Chairman’s speech will be the highlight of the event giving investors clues as to what to expect from monetary policy in the face of inflation,” Schaeffer’s Lillian Currens intoned.

In recent sessions, bond yields have risen and equities have fallen, showing that investors have been more priced in to the possibility of a Fed resolutely determined to tighten the monetary screw with no intention of changing course in the coming months.

Thursday, a second estimate of US GDP from April to June should confirm that the world’s largest economy has contracted (-0.9% at an annualized rate) for a second quarter in a row.

On Friday, before Mr. Powell’s speech, a crucial indicator of inflation for July, the PCE index – the Fed’s favorite barometer – will tell whether the price run has slowed, as shown by the competing index of the CPI earlier in August (8.5% over one year instead of 9.1% in June).

– Mixed indicators –

Mixed data on the macroeconomic front marred the day. Pending home sales fell 1% in July for a second consecutive monthly decline but smaller than analysts expected.

Durable goods orders stagnated last month, due to a drop in orders for military aircraft.

“We had confirmation that the real estate market was in recession but in durable goods orders, deliveries were up, which removed a little negativity,” judged Peter Cardillo.

On the stock market, department stores Nordstrom plunged 19.96% as the chain trimmed its full-year sales forecast indicating that it had notably seen in June a slowdown in purchases by lower-income consumers.

Salesforce, the specialist in customer relations on the cloud (remote computing), fell 5.17% in electronic exchanges after a positive closing at +2.28% (180.01 dollars).

The group disclosed weaker-than-expected third-quarter revenue guidance, even though its second quarter was up.

Semiconductor maker Nvidia (-2.80% after the close) also revised down its sales projections for the third quarter while its result for the second deteriorated sharply compared to the same time last year. ‘before. As he had warned the market at the beginning of August, his turnover devoted to video games collapsed by 33% over one year.

Peloton, in freefall since November as the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns waned, jumped 20.36% to $13.48. Investors have enthusiastically welcomed the smart exercise bike maker’s move to now sell its devices on Amazon, abandoning its exclusive distributor policy.

Last session for a nominal value approaching 900 dollars for Tesla action (+0.22% to 891.29 dollars) which will be divided by three on Thursday. The electric vehicle manufacturer had already divided its share by five in 2020 to make the title more accessible to its employees and small shareholders, thus imitating several big names in tech.