(News Bulletin 247) – The New York Stock Exchange opened in scattered order on Friday, market players struggling to find a clear direction after another series of contrasting quarterly results.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones fell 0.1% to 33,756 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1% to 12,046.3 points.

Wall Street indices have rebounded strongly since mid-March, but investors now seem to be yearning for a break as they digest the recent rise.

The many diversely received corporate publications that drive the rating encourage them to stay away from equities.

Among the groups that published their accounts before the opening, Procter & Gamble gained nearly 3% after raising its growth forecast for 2023 on the strength of its selling prices.

SLB, the ex-Schlumberger, on the other hand, is shunned (-4.9%) despite a solid start to the year, which saw it increase its turnover by 30% in the first quarter for an increase in EPS by 85%.

Corporate results were partly overshadowed by the announcement, at the start of the session, of an S&P Global composite PMI index of 53.5 in flash estimate, against 52.3 the previous month, an 11-month high.

This index – which measures activity in the private sector – shows that the robustness of demand is still supporting growth, even if it is also synonymous with renewed inflation.

On the currency side, the dollar fell a little against the euro, which quoted around 1.0965, which benefited the barrel of American light crude which rebounded 0.4% to 77.7 dollars.

On the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasuries rose a little, beyond 3.57%, the pleasant surprise of the PMI index not militating in favor of monetary easing by the Fed.

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