PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened in the green on Wednesday, awaiting two major appointments next week: the monthly figures for US inflation and the monetary policy meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed), who could opt for a status quo.
Ten minutes after opening, the Dow Jones index gained 54.68 points, or 0.16%, to 33,627.96 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.29% to 4,296.35 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 0.55%, or 72.96 points, to 13,349.378.
The US market is catching its breath after having recently benefited from the hope of a status quo on the Fed’s rates, which has not stopped raising them since March 2022 in the face of galloping inflation.
The Fedwatch tool shows a 78% probability that the US central bank will not touch the “fed funds” rate target in June. However, the scenario of a quarter-point hike in July is estimated at 54%.
Consumer price figures due on Tuesday – the day before the FOMC decisions – could show a small slowdown in inflation on a month-on-month basis, but the rise in core prices remaining at 0.4% , according to the Reuters consensus. “The Fed could use the CPI to justify a rate hike,” Thierry Wizman told Macquarie. “But I wish they wouldn’t, because if they look beyond that, they’ll see there’s a lot more disinflation ahead than what’s reflected in the CPI.” On the stock market, Netflix gained 4.16% after Wells Fargo raised its price target from $400 to $500, the highest level on Wall Street, according to Refinitiv. Campbell Soup dropped 7.28% after reporting a weaker gross margin in the third quarter, due to high raw material and freight prices.
(Laetitia Volga, editing by Kate Entringer)
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