PARIS (Reuters) – American stock markets opened hesitantly on Wednesday on Wall Street, showing caution before the Federal Reserve’s press conference even if they welcomed the producer price indicator in decline for November.

In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 21.44 points, or 0.06% to 36,556.50 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.07% to 4,646.98 points. The Nasdaq Composite takes 0.32% or 46.57 points, to 14,579.969.

The industrial producer price indicator showed growth of 0.9% year-on-year in November, according to data published by the Labor Department on Wednesday, below the consensus of 1% growth.

The slowdown in producer prices shows that the process of disinflation continues, while the American central bank must announce its decision on its interest rates at 19:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Overall falling inflation and activity that is starting to show signs of slowing down argue for maintaining the Fed rate at its current level – a range of 5.25-5.5% – but the markets will be attentive to comments that the president of the institution, Jerome Powell, will formulate on this occasion.

The person in charge could in fact maintain a restrictive tone and seek to reframe market expectations: the easing of financial conditions complicates the work of the central bank by limiting the slowdown in activity.

In terms of values, Pfizer fell 7.98% after announcing on Wednesday that it was forecasting a profit and turnover for 2024 lower than Wall Street’s expectations.

Tesla will recall a little more than two million vehicles in the United States in order to install new devices to prevent misuse of its Autopilot driving assistance system, which causes the group to stumble by 0.98%.

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(Written by Corentin Chappron, edited by Kate Entringer)

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