PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened virtually unchanged on Wednesday after the publication of two contrasting indicators on the labor market in the United States and before the official report on the subject scheduled for Friday.

In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 14.48 points, or 0.03%, to 42,513.88 points. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 4.78 points, or 0.08%, to 5,904.25 points. The Nasdaq Composite lost 23.79 points, or 0.12%, to 19,465.89 points.

A little more than an hour before the opening of Wall Street, the monthly survey by the ADP firm showed that the private sector in the United States had created fewer jobs than expected in December, i.e. 122,000 after 146,000 in November .

The official monthly employment report in the United States will be published on Friday and the Reuters consensus forecasts a slowdown in non-agricultural job creation to 135,000, an unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2% and stagnation in wage growth. at 4.0% over one year.

Unemployment claims, on the other hand, fell unexpectedly in the United States last week, to 201,000 compared to 211,000 the previous week. But this indicator, published a day earlier than expected due to the tribute planned for Thursday to former US President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29, tends to be volatile.

“It appears that one report is at odds with the other. The drop in jobless claims implies that more people have found work, while the ADP figure shows that fewer people have found work than expected “, underlines Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. Investors are monitoring the state of the labor market to determine the trajectory of key rates from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) in a context of uncertainty over the impact of policies of the new administration of the president elected, Donald Trump. The Fed will publish the minutes of its monetary policy meeting on December 17 and 18 at 19:00 GMT, which could provide new information on the extent of the debates within the institution as US bond yields tighten.

The ten-year Treasury rate reached its highest level in eight months on Wednesday, at a time when equity valuations are considered high.

CNN reported Wednesday that Donald Trump is considering declaring a national economic emergency to legally justify the implementation of his tariff surcharge program. Such a measure, combined with mass expulsions of illegal immigrants, raises fears of a resurgence of inflationary pressures and a global trade war.

In values, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell, HSBC having lowered its recommendation on the group from “buy” to “light”.

Shares of quantum computing-related groups such as Rigetti Computing, IonQ and Quantum Computing are losing ground after Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said computers based on the technology are not ready to see the light of day. day and that we might have to wait 30 years.

(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)

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