New York (AFP)

Wall Street was moving close to balance Tuesday, at the start of a shortened session before the markets closed for Christmas, the indices remaining close to their unprecedented levels reached the day before.

Around 3:40 p.m. GMT, the flagship index of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, yielded 0.04%, to 28,539.03 points.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, glittered 0.02%, at 8,947.33 points, and the widened S&P 500 index was evolving almost at the same level as at the end of the previous day, 3,224.02 points.

The main indices had broken records on Monday, supported by the sharp rise in the action of Boeing, whose boss announced his resignation, as well as by a wind of commercial optimism after Chinese announcements: the Dow Jones rose by 0 , 34%, the Nasdaq of 0.23% and the S&P 500 of 0.09%.

The New York square will close earlier than usual Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. GMT, before completely closing its doors on Wednesday, Christmas Day.

Before this break, the market was rather calm and trading limited.

"It's Christmas Eve today and last year's Christmas ghost is missing subscribers," observes Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.

Undermined by the Sino-American trade war, the closure of administrations in the United States and fears of a global recession, the New York market had indeed unscrewed in December 2018.

This scenario has not happened again this year, as Wall Street has been evolving at record levels for several months and the main reason for fear for investors seems to have faded with the announcement of a preliminary commercial agreement between the United States and China.

If few details have filtered on the exact content of this text or on the precise date of its signature, its confirmation in early December has helped to reassure market players.

- Christmas bounce -

In addition, says O'Hare, investors "know that today's session marks the start of the Christmas Bounce period" - the last five sessions of the year and the first two of the year. 'next year, usually marked by gains on Wall Street.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate of American debt was down slightly, standing at 1.916% against 1.929% the day before at the close.

Among the values ​​of the day, Uber rose 1.25%. His former boss and co-founder Travis Kalanick will resign from the company's board of directors on December 31, the car reservation platform announced on Tuesday.

Boeing fell 0.79% after having made significant progress on Monday, at the announcement of the resignation of its boss Dennis Muilenburg and its replacement, from January 13, by David Calhoun.

If investors welcomed this change at the head of the company, many questions remain about the future of the American manufacturer, who is going through the worst in its history with its flagship plane, the 737 MAX, nailed to the ground since mid- March after two fatal accidents and the date of return to the sky is still uncertain.

© 2019 AFP