PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened moderately higher on Monday, driven again by growth stocks against a backdrop of falling bond yields, on the eve of the two-day meeting of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) .
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 135.55 points, or 0.35%, to 38,375.21 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.45% to 5,123.24 points.
The Nasdaq Composite takes 0.54%, or 86.69 points, to 16,014.59.
The yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds fell by 3.5 points, to 4.6362%, and that of two years fell by around two points, to 4.9809%.
The Fed begins a two-day meeting on Tuesday which should lead to a new status quo on its key rates while the prospect of monetary easing is now postponed until September at best.
Money markets are currently pricing in a reduction of around 36 basis points in Fed rates by the end of 2024 compared to an expectation of a reduction of around 150 points at the start of the year, according to LSEG data.
This does not detract from the good mood of market operators who continue to welcome first and foremost the moderation of inflationary pressures after the publication on Friday of a monthly PCE price index close to expectations.
“We don’t expect much from the Fed this week. Powell (Fed Chairman) will likely confirm his latest comments that the recent run of strong economic data will delay rate cuts,” Mohit Kumar wrote in a note , chief economist at Jefferies.
“The emphasis should also be placed on reducing the pace (of quantitative tightening),” he adds.
In terms of values, the easing in bonds benefits growth stocks like Amazon (+1.89%) with a new technology index (+0.48%) in the green.
Apple advances 2.75% after information according to which the group has resumed discussions with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, with a view to using the startup’s technology for new functions on the iPhone. Bernstein also moved to “outperform” on the stock.
Tesla soars 10.45%, the American automobile group having overcome regulatory obstacles which prevented it from deploying its FSD autonomous driving software in China.
Outside of “tech”, Domino’s Pizza climbed 6.08% after reporting on Monday like-for-like sales above expectations in the first quarter.
(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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