Wall Street concludes higher, driven by technology

The Dow Jones index advanced 0.17% to 34,152.60 points, the Nasdaq, with its strong technological coloring, gained 0.90% to 13,639.86 points and the S&P 500 rose 0.28% to 4,378 .38 points.

The technology sector led the rise on Tuesday with notable gains for Microsoft, whose action reached a new all-time high closing at $360.53 (+1.12%), but also Amazon (+2.13%) and Apple (+1.45%).

That of semiconductors was also well supported, notably Intel (+2.16%), after an article in the Wall Street Journal affirming that the microprocessor giant will receive billions of dollars in the name of the “Chips Act”.

This $53 billion law adopted by the Biden administration aims to boost American production and research in the electronic chip sector.

The energy sector, on the other hand, was “severely weighed down by the fall in crude prices”, underlined Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.

A barrel of Texas WTI oil fell to a more than three-month low due to signs of slowing demand in China, the world’s largest importer of crude.

The big names in the sector suffered the blow such as Chevron (-1.76%), ExxonMobil (-1.57%), Conoco (-2.72%).

On the bond market, ten-year yields eased further to 4.56% compared to 4.64% the day before “which helped the stock market”, noted Mr. Cardillo.

Investors also assessed the various interventions by officials of the American Central Bank.

A Fed governor estimated Tuesday that a further rate hike could be necessary to curb inflation, if it does not slow down enough in the coming months.

“I still expect that we will need to raise rates further to bring inflation back to our 2.0% target,” said Michelle Bowman.

Another member of the Fed, Lorie Logan, president of the Dallas branch, estimated that due to the resilience of the economy, we would “continue to need strict financial conditions to bring inflation down to 2 .0%”.

In terms of economic data, the US trade deficit for September increased more than expected to $61.5 billion (+5%) due to an increase in imports. This figure reflects the stockpiling of American companies before the holiday season.

The New York Fed has also published quarterly data on American household debt which shows a new record with 17,300 billion dollars of debt, the increase of which in recent times is mainly due to credit cards.

On the value front, WeWork disappeared from the stock market while the former star of shared offices filed for bankruptcy Monday evening.

WeWork was once valued at up to $47 billion, but its stock was worth only 80 cents Monday evening at the close of the New York Stock Exchange, for a market capitalization of $44.49 million.

The chauffeur-driven vehicle (VTC) and meal delivery reservation platform Uber announced less good results than expected for the third quarter with a turnover of 9.3 billion dollars against 9.5 billion expected. This is still 11% more than the year before. Uber stock jumped 3.66%, that of its competitor Lyft 2.85%.