New York (AFP)

The main indices of the New York Stock Exchange broke new records on Friday, concluding a week marked by solid results from several listed companies and cautious enthusiasm on the commercial front.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, appreciated by 0.17% to 29,347.15 points.

The highly technological Nasdaq appreciated by 0.34% to 9,388.94 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, gained 0.38% to finish at 3,329.51 points.

Over the whole week, the Dow Jones gained 1.3%, the Nasdaq gained 1.7% and the S&P 500 rose 1.5%.

"The market has made significant profits this week," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.

"This is based on good economic figures and solid results," added the expert, who nevertheless believes that a smaller technical downturn could take place soon.

Among the big names on the New York coast to have reported on their quarterly health check this week, the insurer UnitedHealth, the asset manager BlackRock or the bank Morgan Stanley have done much better than expected.

According to Factset, just over 8% of S&P 500 companies have already published their results, almost three-quarters of them exceeding analysts' expectations. Several tech giants like Netflix, Intel and IBM will be doing this exercise next week.

Among the indicators, housing starts in the United States recorded a strong increase (+ 16.9%) over the month in December, reaching their highest level since December 2006, thanks to mild weather and low interest rates, according to Commerce Department data released Friday.

In contrast, US industrial production fell 0.3% in December compared with November, and is below expectations, weighed down by the drop in heating demand, temperatures having been unusually mild, according to data. released Friday by the Federal Reserve (Fed).

For its part, China saw its growth fall last year to 6.1%, its lowest in nearly 30 years, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS) published on Friday. This slowdown is largely due to the intensification of the trade war with the United States.

Washington and Beijing on Wednesday signed a preliminary trade agreement designed as a truce in the standoff that the two countries have been engaged in for nearly two years.

Less than 24 hours later, the new free trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada (AEUMC) was finally approved by the United States Congress.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt rose, settling around 4:15 p.m. GMT at 1.823% against 1.807% the day before at the close.

© 2020 AFP