New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange rose at the opening Thursday, seeming indifferent to the impeachment the day before of Donald Trump by the House of Representatives, synonymous with impeachment trials for the American president.

Around 2:50 p.m. GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 0.22% to 28,300.12 points.

The highly technological Nasdaq rose 0.21% to 8,846.34 points.

The broad S&P 500 index was up 0.04% to 3,196.49 points.

Wall Street had finished near breakeven Wednesday after five sessions of rise, the disappointing results of FedEx dampened the enthusiasm of the investors: the Dow Jones had dropped 0.10% while the Nasdaq had gained 0.05%.

"The main news of the morning (the impeachment of Donald Trump, editor's note) is historic but, in the end, it is almost unimportant from the point of view of the stock market", observes Patrick O'Hare, of Briefing .

The House of Representatives, dominated by Democrats, ruled Wednesday evening in favor of the "impeachement" of the 73-year-old Republican billionaire for "abuse of power", by 230 votes to 197.

It will now be up to the Senate, where the Republicans have the majority, to judge Donald Trump, presumably in January.

But the vote did not seem able to stop the growth of the main New York indices, which have repeatedly reached unprecedented levels in recent weeks.

"The (almost) record levels are the result of interest rates that continue to be low, of optimism about the conclusion of a trade agreement between the United States and China, of the relief that spending on Consumption in the United States have eased fears of recession and the dynamics of purchases in a market that has never stopped resisting the bad news, "explains Mr. O'Hare.

Among the indicators, unemployment benefit claims fell to 234,000 for the second week of December, after reaching their highest in two years (252,000 claimants) the previous week, according to weekly figures from the Labor Department.

Market players will also be attentive to the publication, after the close of the New York market, of Nike's quarterly results.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate of Treasury bills rose to 1.935% against 1.917% on Wednesday at the close.

© 2019 AFP