Wall Street in disarray, seeks to maintain its momentum

New York (AFP) – The New York Stock Exchange was trading in scattered order and within tight margins on Friday, trying to end on a second consecutive week of gains but without major news to maintain its momentum.

Around 1:55 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones gained 0.29%, the Nasdaq yielded 0.20% and the broader S&P 500 index took 0.17%.

“The uptrend continues,” observed Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.

For him, the market was satisfied with the decisions announced Thursday and Friday during the visit of US President Joe Biden to Europe, where several summits took place.

After a new wave of sanctions against Russian personalities and companies on Thursday, the American head of state and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced the creation of a task force to reduce the dependence of Europe to Russian energy exports.

“With no company releases today, equity markets will try to pull one more upside and finish positive for the second week in a row, despite concerns over the war in Ukraine and the lack of progress in the negotiations” of peace, summarized the analysts of Schwab, in a note.

The S&P 500 was trying to end the week on a seventh increase in nine sessions. The Dow Jones, he began his eighth increase in ten sessions.

“Fears over inflation and the prospect of rate hikes are influencing bondholders,” who are selling, noted Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com in a note, while equities “are favored investors because they act as a hedge” against rising prices.

Rates thus tightened violently on Friday. The yield on 10-year US government bonds rose to 2.47%, against 2.37% the day before, before falling back slightly to 2.44%. Bond rates move in the opposite direction to their prices.

“The market remains on the rise for the moment,” added Peter Cardillo, also supported by good indicators, which testifies to the vigor of growth, more resilient than initially feared.

“I think it will continue until we get to the results season”, which begins in mid-April, continued the analyst.

On the table of values, the tech giants reacted little to the announcement of an agreement on a new European regulatory framework to prevent abuse of a dominant position.

Meta (ex-Facebook, +1.85%), Amazon (+0.33%) or Alphabet (+0.03%) were all up.

The chain of household goods and decoration Bed Bath & Beyond was gaining height (+ 1.84% to 22.51 dollars), after an agreement with the entrepreneur Ryan Cohen, who controls nearly 10% of the capital and will bring three representatives to the board of directors.

After the announcement of measures to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, including the supply of natural gas by the United States, the American gas giants were celebrating.

Cheniere (+2.98%), EQT (+6.29%) or Cabot (+0.58%) were all up.

Bank stocks took the same lift as rates, with the prospect of improving their credit margins, like JPMorgan Chase (+0.70%), Bank of America (+1.27%) or Wells Fargo (+1.29%).