by David French

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended mixed on Thursday, with only the Dow Jones narrowly entering positive territory thanks to the strength of financial securities and employment data, while the S&P-500 declined for the third straight session – its worst start to the year since 2015.

The Dow Jones index gained 0.03%, or 10.15 points, to 37,440.34 points.

The broader S&P-500 lost 16.63 points, or 0.34%, to 4,688.68 points.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 81.91 points (0.56%) to 14,510.30 points.

As in the first two sessions of the year, investors favored taking profits after the surges in the main Wall Street indices at the end of last year, once again pulling the S&P-500 and the Dow Jones down.

The prospect of seeing the Federal Reserve (Fed) make a shift in its monetary policy had brought Wall Street to peaks in the final weeks of 2023, with traders then anticipating a rate cut during the first half of 2024.

However, the minutes of the mid-December meeting of the American central bank, published on Wednesday, did not shed any light on the potential timetable for easing its monetary policy. The scenario envisaged by traders is a rate cut of 25 basis points from March, with the virtual certainty that it will occur otherwise at the latest in May.

Investors continued to be cautious, preferring to shy away from high-growth stocks that traditionally benefit from a low-rate environment, so bond yields rose – ten-year Treasuries returned to the 4.0 threshold %.

A private report on US employment released today showed that private companies hired more than expected in December, suggesting that the continued strength of the labor market could continue to support the economy.

Furthermore, weekly jobless claims in the United States were higher than expected, according to separate data.

These elements “do not highlight the need to lower rates tomorrow,” commented Joe Saluzzi, director at Themis Trading in New Jersey. “So people are readjusting their expectations on the timing of a first rate cut,” he added. Most of the main sectors of the S&P-500 ended the session in the red, such as energy, down 1.6%.

Financials saw the biggest gains, following Allstate trading at a peak after Morgan Stanley raised its recommendation for the insurer to “outperform.”

Other insurance companies making gains include American International Group and Hartford Financial Services.

Ahead of the start of the results season next week, American banks had a solid session, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, which rose 0.7%.

Several tech giants, like Amazon, Alphabet and Apple, have pulled back.

( Jean Terzian)

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