New York (AFP)

Wall Street was moving slightly into the green on Thursday opening, regaining some ground in the wake of a sharp decline triggered by the decisions and comments of officials of the US Central Bank (Fed).

Around 13:45 GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gained 0.22% to 26,923.58 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, was up 0.58% at 8,222.62 points, and the broad S & P 500 index of 0.21% at 2,988.47 points.

The New York Stock Exchange was sealed Wednesday by comments from Fed boss Jerome Powell, rejecting a priori the idea of ​​a further automatic decline in interest rates by the end of the year after the intervened Wednesday: Dow Jones dropped 1.23% and Nasdaq 1.19%.

"Jerome Powell was not very clear on how the Fed's Monetary Policy Committee will decide (whether or not to make further rate cuts this year) and that's why the indexes have fallen", remarks Nicholas Colas, from DataTrek.

Mr Powell sowed some confusion by saying that the Fed was not tackling a "long cycle" of cuts and then pointing out that further cuts were not ruled out.

But "no matter what the boss of the Fed has said, markets continue to believe that the Fed will lower rates once or twice in 2019," says Colas.

Such action is generally viewed favorably by Wall Street brokers because it puts oil in the nuts and bolts of the economy by lowering the cost of credit for households, businesses and investors.

For Colas, however, the sharp rise of the dollar after the Fed meeting, fueled by the idea that the US institute will keep its rates at a much higher level than other major central banks, could pose a problem.

The dollar index, which measures the value of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, has indeed climbed to its highest level in two years, "which will affect the results of US companies in the third, or perhaps the fourth quarter, "he says.

"This should fuel strong stock market volatility over the next four to six weeks, until the next Fed meeting on September 18."

In the bond market, the interest rate on 10-year US debt fell further to 1.9937%, compared to 2.014% the previous day.

© 2019 AFP