Modest gains on Wall Street for the last session of a positive month

The New York Stock Exchange indexes ended Monday with modest gains in the last session of a positive month of July, the fifth in a row for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

The Dow Jones index gleaned 0.28% to 35,559.53 points, the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.21% to 14,346.02 points and the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.15% at 4,588.96 points.

The S&P 500 gained 3% in July, marking its fifth consecutive positive month, as did the Nasdaq (+3.8%). The Dow Jones blue chip index also advanced by some 3% over the month.

“There has been some profit taking and it’s probably healthy for the market with the rise we’ve had” in recent weeks, Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital told AFP.

“In the meantime, what we need is a new catalyst because the market has already priced in the earnings season,” he added.

“We are halfway through the earnings season and so far they have been generally better than expected,” commented Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.

“Of the 220 S&P 500 companies that have published their results, 81% are above forecasts,” noted the analyst.

Investors are thus mainly awaiting the official employment figures for July in the United States, which will be published on Friday.

For Edward Moya of Oanda, “traders are not going to change positions much before the employment report on Friday”.

This report should continue to show that the labor market remains “tense” in the United States, said the analyst.

The projections are indeed betting on another 200,000 new job creations but with an increase in hourly wages a little less strong than the previous month (+0.3%).

Investor sentiment was also made cautious by the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monthly survey of major bank loan managers (SLOOS) which showed that lender conditions remain tight.

“Despite the end of the banking crisis” which occurred in March with the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank, “credit conditions remain unusually tight”, noted Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.

The analyst points out that while the percentage of banks tightening their conditions for commercial real estate loans has fallen a little, on the other hand, the percentage of institutions tightening conditions for industrial and commercial loans has reached a new high for the cycle. current.

Listed, Uber shares rose 2.74% to 49.46 dollars as the group is due to announce its quarterly results on Tuesday. Its rival Lyft also took 1.84%.

Cava, the Mediterranean-inspired fast-food chain that successfully floated on the stock exchange in June at a price of $22, jumped nearly 8% to close at $57.11.

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson slumped 3.98% to $167.53 as its plan to claim damages from a third-party lawsuit over its potentially carcinogenic talc case was struck down by a judge . J&J has announced that it will appeal.

The energy sector drove the market like Exxon (+2.96%) or Chevron (+3.02%) thanks to a good month of July for crude oil prices which recorded their strongest rise over a month since April 2022 (+14% for Brent).

The results of the mega-caps Apple (+0.32%) and Amazon (1.11%) are also expected at the end of the week on Thursday after the close, while the activity indicators for the manufacturing and services sectors (ISM) will be published on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.

On the bond market, ten-year rates were up very slightly to 3.96%.