New York (AFP)

Wall Street ended in small decline Thursday, market players wondering about the coronavirus epidemic after the jump in the number of contaminations.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 0.43% to finish at 29,423.31 points.

The highly technological Nasdaq fell 0.14% to 9,711.97 points, and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, 0.16% to finish at 3,373.94 points

"There is a lot of uncertainty around the coronavirus. No one really knows how serious the epidemic is and how far it could spread," said Nate Thooft of Manulife Asset Management.

China announced more than 15,000 additional coronavirus infections on Thursday. This record increase is due to a new, broader definition of infection, depicting a more serious epidemic than previously reported.

The slight decline in Wall Street on Thursday did not seem to move market operators too much, however, as the main indices of the New York coast continued to grow and break new records in recent sessions.

"Whether in the United States or abroad, the markets have been rather resilient and have preferred to focus on the long term, saying that the situation should improve in the coming months," recalls Mr. Thooft .

"At present, the main impact of the virus remains centralized in China, where the epidemic began," said the expert, who said that players in the New York market do not anticipate too serious consequences for the American economy.

Among the indicators, monthly inflation in the United States slightly slowed down its growth rate in January, to + 0.1%, against + 0.2% in December, according to the CPI index published on Thursday by the Department of Job.

Year over year, the inflation rate rose to 2.5%, its highest pace in just over a year.

The number of unemployment benefit claimants has increased slightly, to 205,000 people, against 203,000 the previous week, according to figures from the Labor Department. However, this increase remains lower than analysts' forecasts.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate of the American debt fell, settling at 1.616% around 21.20 GMT against 1.633% the day before at the close.

© 2020 AFP