(New York) The New York Stock Exchange was divided, but not far from balance on Thursday, catching its breath after records the day before and before the release of employment figures in the United States on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.34%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ index fell 0.04% and the S&P 500 Index fell 0.04%.
On Wednesday, the NASDAQ (1.96% to 17,187.91 points) and the S
The session was driven by the rise of Nvidia (5.16% at close), the semiconductor giant dedicated to AI having crossed the symbolic threshold of 3,000 billion in market capitalization.
Nvidia even closed above Apple (0.78%), moving into second place, behind Microsoft. The company which “added a trillion dollars in capitalization in three months […] must divide its shares by ten on Friday,” recalled Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.
“We suspect there are concerns that the market –– and a number of very large cap stocks – are about to suffer a pullback,” he predicted.
Among the indicators, weekly applications for unemployment benefits in the United States increased from 8,000 to 229,000, the highest in a month, according to statistics from the Labor Department.
On Friday, the department publishes job creations which should have increased to 190,000 in May, according to analysts against 175,000 the month before while the unemployment rate should remain at 3.9%.
The bond market tightened a little with ten-year rates at 4.28% compared to 4.27% the day before, after an American trade deficit which widened in April by 9%, to a one-year high and half, reflecting solid demand and strong imports.
This first step was all the more followed by investors as it is quite rare for the ECB to initiate a turning point in monetary policy before the Federal Reserve. The Fed is expected to leave its rates unchanged at its meeting next week.
On the value side, Nvidia fell by 2.71% after its frenzied run the day before. The entire semiconductor sector was sliding into the red, from AMD (-1.17%) to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (-1.09%) to Intel (-1.48%).
The sporting goods chain Lululemon was in demand (3.07%) after announcing better-than-expected first-quarter results and raising its share buyback program to $1 billion.
Discount retailer group Five Bellow was down 11.14% as it cut its 2024 earnings forecast, saying its lower-income customers were cutting back on discretionary purchases, under pressure from inflation.
Dollar General also lost 3.21%.
Lingerie chain Victoria Secret fell 2.74% despite better-than-expected first-quarter results. However, the brand expects sales to decline in the second quarter.
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