(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Friday at the end of a week shortened by the holidays, while investors still hope to see a “Santa Claus rally” despite particularly low trading volumes .
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 270.41 points, or 0.62%, to 43,055.39 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.61% to 6,000.65 points.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.61%, or 121.71 points, to 19,898.65 points.
Investors still hold out hope of witnessing a “Santa Claus rally”, the name given by economists to the period between late December and early January, during which the S&P 500 rose 1.3% on average since 1969, according to Stock Trader’s Almanac data.
Trading volumes are nonetheless thin on both sides of the Atlantic, with analysts expecting trading to return to normal on January 6.
A rise in US bond yields following a successful seven-year bond auction weighed on America’s largest caps on Thursday. These “megacaps” are falling again at the start of this Friday’s session.
The Magnificent Seven, which includes Nvidia, Tesla, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, each lost between 0.86% and 2.14% at the opening.
(Written by Pauline Foret)
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