Wall Street in disorganized order, lack of direction for lack of stakeholders

The New York Stock Exchange moved in dispersed order on Friday shortly after the opening, struggling to find direction during a truncated session, wedged between a holiday (Thanksgiving) and a weekend.

Around 3:00 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones gained 0.38%, while the Nasdaq index yielded 0.40% and the broader S&P 500 index nibbled 0.05%.

“The market will close at 1:00 p.m. New York time (6:00 p.m. GMT), up from 4:00 p.m. usually, “but for many it will never have opened,” Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare said in a note.

This shortened session is, in fact, located between the Thanksgiving holiday and the weekend, “so trading volumes will, without a doubt, be reduced”, according to the analyst.

“I expect a mixed session,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.

“We have no indicator on the program today”, he recalled, “and everyone will scrutinize the sales figures for + Black Friday +”, a day of exceptional sales which is traditionally a high point. for the retail trade in the United States.

This “could focus some of the attention of the few speakers on the distribution sector”, announced Patrick O’Hare.

“But anything can happen on a day like this if the mass of traders clusters around one stock or group of companies,” he warned.

In periods of low operator participation, volatility tends to increase, which can cause sudden price variations.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 ended at its highest closing level in two and a half months, in a market that was more optimistic about the trajectory of the American central bank (Fed). The market was closed on Thursday.

The most representative index of the New York market is only a breath away from an important technical threshold, namely its average value over the last 200 trading days.

If it crossed it upwards, “it would be an important step”, recognizes Peter Cardillo, “even if it will be difficult today, because we expect little trading volume. This would indicate that the market is continuing its advanced.”

Mixed indicators and more measured talk from Fed members have fueled hopes in recent days that the institution will slow the pace of its monetary tightening in the months to come.

After exceeding 4.30% in October, the yield on US 10-year government bonds fell sharply. It stood at 3.72% on Friday, against 3.70% on Wednesday.

Apple fell (-1.54% to 148.75 dollars) while the giant factory in Zhengzhou, China, the largest iPhone manufacturing site in the world, was shaken by a major social movement.

Videos posted on social networks show clashes between police and site employees, frustrated at not having received a bonus to continue work in the factory, confined since October.

Owner of the premises, the Taiwanese group Foxconn offered severance bonuses to disgruntled employees in an attempt to appease the climate within the factory.

The resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in China penalized Chinese companies listed on Wall Street, in particular the e-commerce giants Alibaba (-4.11%) and JD.com (-4.96%) or the manufacturer of electric vehicles XPeng (-5.88%).

Manchester United (+13.72% to 21.38 dollars), listed in New York, continued to benefit from the announcement on Tuesday of the Glazer family, owner of the football club, which plans to put it up for sale.