New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange finished small Thursday, driven by the hope of progress in the Sino-US negotiations after goodwill gestures from both parties and the support measures of the European Central Bank.

The Dow Jones, its star index, appreciated for the seventh consecutive session, of 0.17%, to 27,182.45 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, gained 0.30% to 8,194.87 points and the expanded index S & P 500 rose 0.29% to 3,009.57 points.

The three main Wall Street indexes are thus showing a short distance from their recent records.

They were helped by the impression that "the process of negotiations between the United States and China is getting a little smoother," said Art Hogan of National Securities.

Before high-level bilateral trade talks to be held in Washington in October, Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that he postponed to October 15 instead of the first tariff increases of $ 250 billion worth of goods imported from Washington. China.

Beijing, for its part, has said it is studying the possibility of buying more American agricultural products.

"I am cautiously optimistic," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday, noting that the White House tenant was willing to withdraw or increase tariffs on goods from the Asian giant according to the outcome of the talks. .

Investors were also encouraged Thursday "by the fact that the ECB has not made a mistake at its meeting," said Hogan.

The institution has unveiled a panoply of measures to stimulate a slowing economy, between rate cuts, new buybacks of public and private debt, tapering system and giant loans to relieve banks.

The US Federal Reserve (Fed) will unveil next week whether it follows suit with its European counterpart by announcing new monetary actions or whether it maintains the status quo.

Another encouraging sign, the indicators of the day for their part were "in line with expectations, or even a little above in terms of consumer prices which is good news," says Art Hogan.

Excluding volatile energy and food prices, consumer prices rose 2.4% year-over-year in the United States, climbing to their highest level in 13 months.

In the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt rose a little, moving towards 20:20 GMT to 1.784% against 1.739% the day before the closing.

© 2019 AFP