New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended near balance on Thursday as the S & P 500 managed to quietly set a new record while the Dow Jones and Nasdaq were still handicapped by lingering market uncertainty.

The Wall Street index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, dropped 0.01% to 27,781.96 points, and the Nasdaq, with strong technological color, lost 0.04% to 8,479.02 points, while the broad S & P 500 index gained 0.08% at 3,096.63 points.

While the Dow Jones and Nasdaq have also recently reached unprecedented levels, "the market is taking a breath and we should not seek explanations," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.

"We should see new positive developments on the trade front to start moving forward," he says.

As China and the United States strive to finalize a partial deal on their trade dispute, Beijing said on Thursday that the lifting of customs surcharges was a prerequisite for any compromise and that "deep talks" were taking place on this subject.

Last week, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce assured that the two sides had agreed to a "phased" lifting of their mutual punitive tariffs. But US President Donald Trump later denied these claims.

According to Wall Street Journal reports, the talks are also stumbling over the issue of US purchases of agricultural products by China.

The US president also said on Wednesday that it will soon reveal whether he decides whether to impose additional taxes on imports of the automotive sector, a threat particularly feared by Berlin.

The president of the US central bank (Fed), Jerome Powell, for his part has "nothing said very new for the markets" during his hearing before a parliamentary committee, said Mr Cardillo. "Perhaps he brought some comfort to investors by saying that the growing debt of the United States would not lead to a catastrophe for the US economy," he adds.

The weakness of the manufacturing industry does not affect the rest of the economy in the United States, still supported by household consumption, said Thursday Mr. Powell.

In the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt fell back to 1.819% at 21:20 GMT against 1.886% Wednesday at the close.

© 2019 AFP