(News Bulletin 247) – The week started on a positive note, but in a market without consistency or volatility.
The indices rise ‘by default’: when there are not really any ‘market movers’, it is the underlying trend that prevails, and it has been positive for six sessions.

The Dow Jones index climbed 0.22% to 34,585, the S&P500, 0.4% to 4,522, and the Nasdaq once again stood out with +0.93% to 14,245.
The outperformance of the Nasdaq once again flows from source: the ‘technos’ rise each time the conviction of a future rate cut regains the upper hand.

More generally, investors are trying to convince themselves that the results season will be positive, with profits and margins higher than expected (companies have demonstrated their ability to push through price increases that the consumer still manages to collect).

Perhaps not for long… and the retail sales figures expected on Tuesday will be a great lesson in this area.
But if consumption falls, optimists think it will be positive since it will increase the chances that the Fed will ‘pivot’ and change its tune early in the fall.

Among the most anticipated results on Tuesday will be those of Bank of America, Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley, PNC Bank, Bank of New York and Morgan Stanley.

Wall Street does not seem to have reacted to the ‘figure of the day’: it was the ‘Empire State’ index of the New York area manufacturing sector which slowed markedly this month to settle at +1.1 against +6.6 in June, but that’s ‘less worse’ than the consensus expected in negative territory.

The New York Fed says new orders and shipments from manufacturing companies have increased, while delivery times have shortened and inventories have continued to decline.

Employment levels rose slightly, increases in input and selling prices continued to slow. While companies expect conditions to improve, their optimism has remained muted.

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