Wall Street ends the week on a positive note

The New York Stock Exchange ended the week on a positive note on Friday, posting a new weekly gain, supported by a stabilization of bond rates.

The Dow Jones index advanced 1.15% to 34,283.10 points, the technology-dominated Nasdaq gained 2.05% to 13,798.11 points and the S&P 500 index rose 1.56% to 4,415 .24 points.

Over the week, the broader index advanced more than 1%, the Nasdaq gained 2% and the Dow Jones gained 0.6%.

10-year bond rates, which saw a small surge on Thursday after statements by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on monetary policy, stabilized on Friday, giving stocks some respite.

Around 9:00 p.m. GMT, they stood at 4.61% compared to 4.62% the day before.

“We will not hesitate” to further raise key rates “if necessary” in the face of high inflation, the president of the American Federal Reserve warned on Thursday.

“He said the central bank was not sure it had done enough to continue to curb inflation,” summarized Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.

Investors had also been destabilized by the lack of success of an issue of 30-year Treasury bonds. They were reassured on Friday, because this lack of appetite for American debt was not due to a lack of demand but to a cyberattack from a Chinese order-taking bank.

This computer attack with a malicious virus “prevented the purchase of debt and the market started to rise again because the cause of this lack of success of the issue was not due to a total absence of demand but to the fact of this technical situation,” explained Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Financial Services (ICBC FS) said it “experienced a ransomware attack which resulted in disruption to some systems.

Among the indicators, a deterioration in American consumer confidence for November did not disconcert the market.

The University of Michigan barometer fell 5% in November to 60.4 points, the lowest in six months.

On the market, Nvidia (+2.95%) and the semiconductor sector had a beneficial session as did AMD (+4.49%), or Intel (+2.80%).

The car rental company with driver Lyft gained 1.79% after being sanctioned the day before despite announcing better than expected results. Investors had focused on the comparison with rival Uber.

The sector leader showed a 31% year-on-year increase in reservations compared to +15% for Lyft.

Streaming advertising company Trade Desk fell 16.66% after publishing weak sales forecasts blamed on the economic situation.

Wynn Resorts casinos fell 5.69% as the group signed an agreement with the hotel bartenders and cooks’ union, the Culinary Union, on salary conditions to avoid a strike.

The indices also reacted favorably to the confirmation of the meeting between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday in San Francisco, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific summit, Apec.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen concluded bilateral meetings held since Thursday with He Lifeng, the Chinese vice-premier. He had “frank, direct and productive discussions (…) on a wide range of subjects, including certain areas of cooperation and others of disagreement”, she said in a press release Friday evening.