Stock market: Wall Street closes in scattered order

(Photo: Getty Images)

MARKET OVERVIEW. The New York Stock Exchange closed mixed on Thursday, with the broader S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq finishing in the red for the fifth straight session.

The Toronto Stock Exchange closed slightly higher.

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Stock market indices at closing

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX closed +52.39 points (+0.24%) up to 21,708.44 points.

In New York, the S&P500 ended with -11.09 points (-0.22%) on 5,011.12 points.

THE Nasdaq fell by -81.87 points (-0.52%) to 15,601.50 points.

THE DOW collected +22.07 points (+0.06%) to 37,775.38 points.

THE wage increased by +US$0.0001 (+0.0102%) to US$0.7264.

THE oil fell by -US$0.18 (-0.22%) to US$82.51.

L’gold ended +US$6.00 (+0.25%) at US$2,394.40.

THE bitcoin rose +US$2,240.84 (+3.65%) to US$63,678.51.

Context

Bond yields rose to nearly 4.64% for the 10-year yield, up from 4.58% the day before.

Several indicators released Thursday showed that U.S. activity remains relatively dynamic, further challenging the long-awaited first rate cuts.

The number of weekly applications for unemployment benefits stagnated at 212,000, a sign that the labor market remains strong.

Activity in the Philadelphia industrial region rose to 15.5 points in April, while analysts expected it to stagnate. This is the highest level in two years.

Another element that indicates an economy that is in good shape: the American central bank (Fed) published its Beige Book on Wednesday.

The report, which comes out two weeks before the Fed’s next monetary meeting, “brought largely good news,” said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.

In March, US activity “made slight progress and entrepreneurs expressed cautious optimism,” the analyst said.

“The shares are not finding buyers,” said Karl Haeling of LBBW.

“Now that it looks like the Fed will delay rate cuts, investors are pulling out of the stock market, not because they believe the economy will worsen, but because they thought if the Fed cut rates, buyers would return to the market “, he says. explained.

Investors who just a few weeks ago were expecting a first Fed rate cut in June are now expecting more in September or even November, according to CME Group’s estimate.

On Thursday, New York Fed President John Williams reiterated that he sees “no urgency” to cut rates. As for the Atlanta Fed’s Raphael Bostic, he stuck to his projection of a single rate cut by the end of the year.

On the value side, Netflix (NFLX, -0.51% to US$610.56) fell 3.16% after the close in the electronic stock markets despite quarterly results beating expectations.

The streaming giant added another 9.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2024, bringing the total to almost 270 million.

The American company achieved a turnover of $ 9.37 billion and a net profit of $ 2.3 billion in the first quarter, a result that exceeded expectations and those of analysts.

Brokers are avoiding shares of the Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC (TSM), listed in Taiwan, but also on the New York Stock Exchange, which posted quarterly profit that rose 9% year-on-year to $6.97 billion.

The title of the artificial intelligence chip maker, which counts Apple and Nvidia among its customers, fell 5.25% to $86.88.

Apple (AAPL), in turn, fell 0.57% to $167.04 Nvidia (NVDA) gained 0.76% to $846.71.

The title of Snap (SNAP), the parent company of social network Snapchat, rose 6.74% to $11.63 as the US House of Representatives reexamines a bill on Saturday that would ban rival app TikTok.

Meta (Facebook) (META) ended up 1.54% at US$501.80 after releasing a new version of its generative artificial intelligence assistant Llama 3.

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