New York (AFP)

Wall Street ended in the green Wednesday, again driven by comments from US Central Bank boss Jerome Powell, opening the door to a potential rate cut, despite mixed economic indicators.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 0.82% to 25,539.57 points, and the Nasdaq index, with strong technological color, rose by 0.64% to 7,575.48 points.

The broad S & P 500 index gained 0.82%, at 2,826.15 points.

"The market continues to react to comments by Jerome Powell, who said Tuesday that the Fed was ready to act (to maintain the expansion), made it clear that the Fed was not going to let the economy slip into recession, that the Fed was ready to lower rates, "commented Alan Skrainka of Cornerstone Wealth Management.

According to the FedWatch tool of the CME stock exchange platform, investors now estimate at 58% the probability that the Fed will lower its rates in July.

This possible rate cut would be precipitous, according to many observers of the market, by the consequences of the merciless trade war being fought by China and the United States, as well as by the threats of the American president, Donald Trump, to impose customs taxes in Mexico.

For the time being concerns: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Wednesday lowered its growth forecast for China, yet traditionally the engine of the global economy.

The latter is "at a delicate turning point" because of renewed trade tensions, the IMF said, urging the G20 countries to keep interest rates low to support their economies.

The World Bank, for its part, lowered significantly Tuesday its global growth forecast for this year to 2.6% against 2.9% estimated in January.

This relatively negative picture of the global economy was completed Wednesday by the figures of job creation in the private sector in the United States, which melted to 27,000 new hires in May, a sharp decline from 271,000 the previous month according to the data from the ADP survey.

This situation led to a further decline in the interest rate on the US 10-year debt, reflecting the US growth outlook, at 2.12% around 20.20 GMT against 2.129% the day before closing.

Among the positive news, however, growth in services activity in the US accelerated in May, contradicting analysts' forecasts.

? 2019 AFP