PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Wednesday awaiting the publication on Thursday of an inflation indicator closely monitored by the American Federal Reserve (Fed).

About ten minutes after the first exchanges, the Dow Jones index lost 189.11 points, or 0.49%, to 38,783.3 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500, broader, fell by 0.26% to 5,064, 71 points.

The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.48%, or 76.37 points, to 15,958.92.

The PCE price index in the United States will be published on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. GMT and the Reuters consensus forecasts an acceleration to 0.3% over one month but a slowdown to 2.4% over one year.

The persistence of inflation in the United States as evidenced by recent consumer price and producer price data has led some observers to predict that the Fed will not lower its rates before June, or even July.

“Investors will certainly be nervous if the Fed sees figures (…) continue to show that inflation is stubborn,” notes Joe Saluzzi, head of trading at Themis Trading.

“What is certain is that the Fed is not increasing its rates. The question is therefore whether the numbers will be sufficient for it to at least start to take seriously the date of the cut (rates) “, he added.

The publication by the Commerce Department, an hour before the opening of Wall Street, of the second estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States, showed that growth in the fourth quarter was a little weaker than that of initially forecast, at 3.2% annualized. This rate, however, remains high while the Fed has been working to curb demand since March 2022, a sign that a reduction in the cost of money is not necessary.

In terms of values, “tech” giants like Nvidia fell 1.27%, one of the biggest declines in the sector.

Applied Materials dropped 2.0% following a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American stock market watchdog, to obtain information relating to certain deliveries to Chinese customers.

Bumble falls 5.27% after announcing a plan to cut around 30% of its workforce amid disappointing forecasts for the current quarter, while Novavax plunges 26.08% after posting a loss net profit more marked than expected in the fourth quarter.

On the upside, eBay jumped 6.91% as the e-commerce platform beat market expectations with fourth-quarter revenue and profit.

Beyond Meat soars 38.76% after announcing an increase in the prices of its products and a reduction in its costs.

Cryptoasset groups Coinbase Global (+4.34%), Bitfarms (+3.65%) and Marathon Digital (+5.24%) shine as bitcoin exceeds the symbolic mark of $60,000, its highest since November 2021.

(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)

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