New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange could not keep the momentum from the previous day and ended without direction on Tuesday, pending the outcome of a Fed monetary meeting on Wednesday.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had a sawtooth end of the session sometimes slipping into the red, ended in equilibrium scrambling 0.01% to 27.995.60 points while the expanded S&P index 500 gained 0.52% to 3,401.20 points.

The Nasdaq gained 1.21% to 11,190.32 points.

The market which started the day up "retracted at the end of the day mainly because of Apple," said Peter Cardillo, of Spartan Capital Securities.

"But we had two days of recovery" after the losses last week, "and I think it's a good indication that these recent declines are now behind us," he said.

For Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com, "the markets have kind of tested the ground after the sales of the last few weeks."

Apple did not impress brokers with the announcement Tuesday of a new subscription: the title, which fell in negative during the session, rose only 0.16% to 115.54 dollars.

Entitled Apple One and launched this fall, this service will allow users to access its streaming, music and video game platforms as well as its cloud service (remote computing).

- Focused on the Fed -

Investors were focused on the outcome of the Fed's monetary meeting, in particular the press conference with Chairman Jerome Powell scheduled for Wednesday at 6.30 p.m. GMT.

In particular, the Fed must disclose its rate forecasts until 2023, which have been maintained between 0% and 0.25% since March.

"I don't expect the Fed to change its message. But will the market continue to take advantage of accommodative monetary policy and push the stock market higher?" Asked Patrick O 'Hare.

Tesla, which had recorded its biggest drop on the stock market last week, climbed 7.18% to 449.76 dollars after rising 12.58% the day before.

Oracle, whose listing was suspended early Monday after the announcement of a proposed agreement with the application of light videos TikTok, rose 2.49%.

Owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, the popular application is at the heart of a diplomatic battle between Beijing and Washington, with US President Donald Trump accusing TikTok of spying for the benefit of China and threatening it with a ban in the United States.

President Trump himself assured from the White House on Tuesday that an agreement was "close" between TikTok and Oracle.

"We will make a decision very soon," said the US president, who also expressed his respect for the boss of Oracle, Larry Ellison, one of his relatives.

Graphics card maker Nvidia, whose stock rose nearly 6% on Monday, moderated its rise (+ 0.92%) after its announcement of plans to buy British Arm for $ 40 billion, a historic transaction in terms of amount for the microprocessor sector.

Cruise line Carnival plunged 10.76% after announcing the sale of common shares for $ 1 billion, implying liquidity needs for the group which suffered from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose around 8:40 p.m. GMT to 0.6789% against 0.6723% on Monday evening.

© 2020 AFP