(News Bulletin 247) – The New York Stock Exchange changed little this Thursday at the start of the session following a series of mixed economic indicators, added to business news seen as not conducive to risk taking.
One hour after the close, the Dow Jones fell 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose timidly by 0.1% to 12,946.2 points.
US equity markets were initially quoted higher this morning following the adoption overnight of the agreement to raise the debt ceiling by the House of Representatives.
But investors were scalded in the morning by several statistics illustrating the resistance of the labor market, an element likely to encourage the Fed to continue its rate hikes.
The private sector thus generated 278,000 jobs in May, a figure well above expectations, according to the monthly survey published on Thursday by ADP.
As for registrations for unemployment benefits, they only increased by 2,000 during the week of May 22, to settle at 232,000 against 230,000 the previous week.
In the eyes of some investors, this could augur a further rate hike by the Federal Reserve next month, fears that ended up being put into perspective by the publication of an ISM manufacturing index below expectations.
This fell to 46.9 in May, against 47.1 in April, reflecting a contraction in the sector for the seventh month in a row.
Worryingly, the ISM points out that its sub-index measuring the strength of order books had not experienced a fall of such magnitude since the financial crisis of 2008.
Unsurprisingly, the consumer sector is under pressure and yields 0.5% after the downward revision of the annual objectives of the department store group Macy’s, which yields more than 3% on the stock market.
The designer of enterprise software in ‘cloud’ mode Salesforce dropped more than 4% despite the upward revision of its annual objectives on the occasion of the publication yesterday of its quarterly results.
Investors seem to want to take advantage of this solid publication to reap some profits on the stock, which posted a 69% gain at the close last night since January 1.
Still on the Dow, Chevron advances by 0.6% thanks to an increase in the recommendation of RBC analysts, who praise the financial ‘discipline’ of the American oil group.
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