Wall Street ends in scattered order, after three sessions of decline

Wall Street ended in disarray on Friday after three consecutive sessions of decline, the Dow Jones having been supported by positive US indicators and the hope of a US economic support plan, before or after the presidential election on November 3.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.39% to 28,606.31 points.

Starting well in the session, the high-tech Nasdaq fell 0.36% to 11,671.55 points and the S&P 500 expanded index climbed 0.01% to 3,483.81 points.

In particular, investors welcomed good retail sales for September and improved US consumer confidence, the highest since the start of the pandemic.

Retail sales rose much more than expected in September compared to August, according to Commerce Department data released Friday, rising 1.9% after slowing over the summer as analysts banked on an increase of 0.6%.

“This shows that the spending habits of consumers have not changed despite the fact that we have a high unemployment rate,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.

“It’s strong, strong, strong”, also rejoiced Chris Low of FHN Financial indicating that this augured “an increase in GDP of more than 30% in the third quarter”.

The consumer confidence index published by the University of Michigan also improved to 81.2 points from 80.4 in September, reaching a higher level since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Investors were still clinging to the hope of a new plan to support the US economy even if the negotiations stalled.

“The market seems to be holding up. It is keeping its hopes up, hopes that eventually we will get a stimulus package. I still think there is a possibility that we will get it before the election, even if it does not seem to be the case, ”noted Cardillo.

According to him, “it would be politically logical for the two parties to draw up a plan”, especially since the rank of bad news, industrial production fell unexpectedly in September to -0.6%, its first decline since April.

– Need a revival –

“This is an indication that in September the economy has lost momentum, so we need a stimulus,” warned the analyst from Spartan Capital Securities.

The Nasdaq took a nosedive at the end of the session, led by Apple, the biggest valuation of Wall Street, which finished down 1.40%. Microsoft was stable, Tesla lost 2.05% and Amazon almost 2%. “Nothing exciting. It matches a rotation of stocks from large caps in tech to stocks that heretofore have been less in favor,” said Art Hogan of National Holdings Corporation.

The American group of interactive exercise bikes Peloton saw its share fall 3.74% after the announcement of a recall of 27,000 machines.

Among the increases, was Boeing (+ 1.89%) supported by the words of the boss of the European aviation regulator according to which the 737 MAX, grounded for more than a year and a half, could a priori fly ” safely”.

The Pfizer laboratory has garnered 3.83% after announcing that it would request emergency authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine from the American authorities during the third week of November.

The health sector within the S&P was up 1.02% overall.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose slightly to 0.7489% against 0.7322% Thursday night. The Trump administration announced an abysmal deficit of more than $ 3 trillion for the fiscal year 2020 ended in September, due to exceptional economic measures in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nasdaq