PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange fell in early trading on Thursday, as disappointing quarterly results from Tesla, AT&T and some regional banks hurt investor sentiment already hurt by the prospect of tight monetary policy longer than expected.

In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 199.01 points, or 0.59%, to 33,698 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.66% to 4,126.89 points.

The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.6%, or 72.503 points, to 12,084.723.

Automaker Tesla fell 7.66% after a quarterly gross margin below expectations due to repeated price cuts on its electric vehicles.

Its leader Elon Musk has indicated that further price cuts could come, saying he wants to prioritize sales over profitability amid weakening demand.

Among the other companies which published their results, the operator AT&T fell by 7.41% after a turnover worse than expected and American Express sold 4.27% after having increased its provisions for losses to more than one year. billion in the first quarter.

Among regional banks, Zions, Truist Financial and KeyCorp fell 2.73% to 5.37% after seeing their profits miss market expectations.

Jobless claims rose slightly last week and the Philly Fed activity index, which covers the Philadelphia area, plunged to its lowest level in nearly three years.

But for some observers, the slowdown in the US economy is not enough to push the Federal Reserve to begin to cut rates this year. This is indicated by the latest survey carried out by Reuters.

Another source of concern concerns the debt ceiling of the United States, a subject of contention between the White House and the Republican camp. The cost of a guarantee against a risk of default on the American debt reached its highest level since 2011 on Thursday, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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