New York (AFP)

The three main indices of the New York Stock Exchange lost more than 2% Wednesday, after a session shaken by the Fed, which diagnoses a weakening of the recovery, and speculative agitation.

According to final results, the index of flagship stocks Dow Jones dropped -2.05% to 30,303.17 points.

The technology-intensive Nasdaq dropped -2.61% to 13,270.60 points, while the S&P 500, the most representative of the US market, fell -2.57% to 3,750.77 points.

As of the publication in the early afternoon of the press release from the Fed's Monetary Committee, noting a "weakening" in employment activity in recent months, the indices, which were already moving in the red, widened their losses .

"A long way before a full economic recovery", "a highly uncertain outlook": Jerome Powell, President of the Central Bank tempered the ambient optimism, insisting that the good health of the world's largest economy remained dependent on developments in pandemic and the pace of vaccination.

"The Fed has acknowledged that the economic recovery has weakened over the last two months of last year," said Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.

The Central Bank "has maintained its language according to which asset purchases will continue at the current rate until further substantial progress has been made," Wells Fargo analysts also noted, stressing that the qualification of such future progress "lacked clarity".

-Speculative push -

The stock market was already off to a bad start at the start of the session as investors seemed "grappling with the recent surge in valuations exacerbated by growing speculation," said Schwab.

They were concerned about the frenzy around actions like that of the video game distributor GameStop (+ 134% at closing at 347.51 dollars) or that of AMC Entertainment Holdings (+ 301% to 19.90 dollars).

GameStop, a channel rather in difficulty, has been the subject for five days of a battle between hedge funds that had bet on the fall of the title and stock marketers who defend it.

This rise in securities "pushes hedge funds" who had bet on their decline, "to have to liquidate positions and raise funds" to cover their bets, explained Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert Financial Services.

Asked about these speculative surges, the boss of the Fed refrained from commenting.

On the macroeconomic front, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also issued an alarm signal once again, during its global economic forecasts, on a possible "risk of a market correction".

Boeing dropped almost 4% after painful results with the pandemic, showing a loss of 11.9 billion dollars in 2020. Microsoft, despite huge results the day before, stagnated (+ 0.25%).

After the close, the good results of the heavyweights of the tech hardly changed the situation.

Despite making $ 11 billion in profits last quarter, Facebook was pegging 0.18% after the close after finishing down 3.51%.

Apple and its record turnover of more than 111 billion dollars remained stable in electronic exchanges after the closing bell.

Tesla, which posted a weaker-than-expected profit in the 4th quarter, saw its stock fall 4% after the close.

In the bond market, the 10-year yield on Treasuries gave ground to 1.0093% from 1.0347% on Tuesday.

© 2021 AFP