(News Bulletin 247) – The New York Stock Exchange was virtually unchanged on Thursday at the start of a session driven by contrasting economic indicators, including a measure of growth below expectations and still solid figures on the employment side.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones is perfectly stable, at 33,046.7 points, just like the Nasdaq which only progresses by a small point, at 11,509.6 points.

The US equity markets had tried to start a rebound in the early morning, carried by technical elements while the S&P 500 has just aligned four consecutive sessions of decline.

But after the spectacular stock market performance at the start of the year, investors seem to want to wait to see more clearly, mainly on the question of the evolution of monetary policies.

With inflation and interest rates set to remain elevated, the potential for equity appreciation appears to have largely been exhausted, so investors are no longer expecting a rally similar to that of recent weeks.

The day’s indicators also painted a rather mixed picture of the US economy.

The second estimate of US GDP for the 4th quarter of 2022 came out below the first estimate, at +2.7% against +2.9%, with above all an upward revision of underlying inflation (PCE) .

‘This takes the markets ‘in the wrong way’ in the sense that growth is weaker and inflation higher than initially estimated,’ comments Christophe Boucher, director of investments at ABN Amro Investment Solutions.

‘Yet the markets don’t seem to care that much as they believe it is unlikely to change the scenario of a soft landing and disinflation with an end to interest rate hikes in 2023’, adds the manager.

According to ABN Amro, the upcoming monthly publications, in particular those expected tomorrow on income and inflation, could make the markets react more.

Jobless claims fell at the same time last week, which confirms the good health of the labor market in the world’s largest economy.

On the rates market, buyers are trying to regain control even if the easing that is taking place at the level of rates remains modest, with a decline of three basis points to less than 3.92% for the yield of Treasuries at ten years.

On the energy side, the barrel of American light crude rebounded 2% towards 75.5 dollars, even if weekly crude inventories increased again last week.

In terms of values, Nvidia jumped 14% after beating Wall Street expectations in its past quarter, mainly thanks to the strength of its data center chips, widely used by ‘cloud’ specialists.

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