PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened in disarray on Friday, with investors divided between the solid results published by companies and the monthly indicator on American employment which wards off the prospect of an imminent rate cut of the Federal Reserve (Fed).

In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 129.33 points, or 0.34%, to 38,390.51 points, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.15% to 4,913.74 points. .

The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4%, or 61.35 points, to 15,422.99.

An hour before the opening of Wall Street, the US Department of Labor reported 353,000 non-agricultural jobs created last month in the United States, while economists polled by Reuters forecast an average of only 180,000.

The December statistics have, however, been revised to 333,000 positions (compared to 216,000 initially indicated), which puts the differential into perspective. The unemployment rate also remained stable at 3.7% in January while the consensus predicted a rise to 3.8%.

The increase in average hourly wages, on the other hand, accelerated to 0.6% over one month and to 4.5% over one year, a sign of the uncertainties over the evolution of inflationary pressures highlighted on Wednesday by the President of the Fed, Jerome Powell, which ruled out a rate cut in March.

“The strong jobs report indicates that demand in the labor market is higher than expected,” said Richard Flynn, managing director of Charles Schwab UK.

“While lower interest rates would certainly be welcome, it is becoming increasingly clear that markets and the economy are coping well with the high rate environment, so investors may have the feeling that the need for monetary policy easing is less urgent,” he added.

The likelihood of the Fed easing monetary policy in May, however, fell to around 60% from around 90% before the jobs report was released.

The solid quarterly results published Thursday evening by Meta Platforms (+16.99%) and Amazon (+6.55%) also provide support for the indices. Facebook’s parent company drives the social networks Snap (+3.78%) and Pinterest (+1.02%).

The new technologies compartment fell by 0.1%, with Apple in particular losing -2.86% after reporting on Thursday evening disappointing sales in China over the October-December period, which eclipsed the turnover and overall sales higher than expectations published by the group.

In the oil sector (+0.55%), better than expected publications from Exxon Mobil (+0.73%) and Chevron (+2.38%) are welcomed, as are those in health from Regeneron (+ 0.25%) and Cigna (+3.69%).

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Sophie Louet)

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