New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Thursday in a market still worried about the trade situation between the United States and China.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the flagship index of Wall Street, fell 0.20% to finish at 27,766.29 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloration, yielded 0.24% to 8,506.21 points.

The broad S & P 500 index dropped 0.16% to 3,103.54 points.

According to Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital, investors continue to watch closely "the daily rhetoric around the trade war" between Washington and Beijing.

The positive signals sent Thursday by China, which said it is ready to do "everything possible" to reach a preliminary agreement with the United States, have not particularly reassured investors.

These words come after Donald Trump promised Tuesday a new tariff increase on Chinese products if no preliminary agreement was reached with Beijing and after the adoption Wednesday by the US Congress of a resolution supporting "human rights and democracy "in Hong Kong.

"The decline today is not very important, which makes me say that what happened today is rather a technical decline," says Cardillo.

Market players are asking whether the Trump administration will impose additional tariffs on December 15, on some $ 160 billion of Chinese products that have not yet been surcharged.

In addition, the energy sector advanced, led by the sharp rise in oil prices during the last two sessions. Within the S & P 500, the energy index sub-index rose 1.63%.

Among the indicators, growth in manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region (northeastern United States) picked up a little in November, in line with analysts' expectations, according to the index of the local branch. Federal Reserve (Fed) released Thursday.

The indicator measuring the general conditions of the activity gained 5 points to settle at 10.4 after having already declined two months in a row.

On the bond market, the 10-year US debt rate stood at 1.769% around 9:15 pm GMT, up from its previous day's close (1.745%).

© 2019 AFP