The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
par Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Archyde.com) – The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Thursday as a flurry of macroeconomic data released in the United States did nothing to change expectations of another sharp rise in interest rates by the Federal Reserve next week to fight inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.56 percent, or 173.27 points, to 30,961.82 points.
The broader S&P-500 fell 44.66 points, or 1.13%, to 3,901.35 points.
The Nasdaq Composite, with a strong technological component, fell for its part by 167.32 points (-1.43%) to 11,552.36 points.
While the rise in banking stocks with the prospect of a further rate hike helped limit the decline in the Dow Jones, the decline in digital giants such as Apple (-1.9%) and Microsoft (-2.7%) on the other hand particularly weighed on the Nasdaq.
The indicators published on Thursday hardly provided any arguments to invalidate the expected scenario of a three-quarters of a point increase in the federal funds rate range (“fed funds”) at the end of Wednesday’s next meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee.
Jobless claims fell last week, confirming the strength of the labor market, retail sales recorded an unexpected increase in August and the “Empire State” activity index fell less than expected for September but the ” Philly Fed” fell contrary to expectations.
And if industrial production fell by 0.2% in August, manufacturing production for its part increased by 0.1%.
In values, health insurer Humana gained 8.4% after raising its annual profit forecast on the back of lower-than-expected costs since the start of the year.
The software publisher Adobe, on the other hand, fell by 16.8% after the announcement of the acquisition of Figma as part of an operation valuing the collaborative design platform around 20 billion dollars (as many euros).
The announcement of a draft agreement between employers and unions in the rail transport sector, which should avoid a massive strike from Saturday, allowed the companies Union Pacific (+0.2%) and Norfolk Southern (+ 0.35%) to withstand the downturn in equity markets.
(Stephen Culp report in New York, with Ankika Biswas in Bangalore, French version Bertrand Boucey)