New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange closed sharply in the red on Monday, with investors choosing to cash in on their profits at the end of a year marked by strong index growth.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 0.64% to 28,462.14 points.

The highly technological Nasdaq lost 0.67% to 8,945.99 points and the broad S&P 500 index fell 0.58% to 3,221.29 points.

"Clearly this is about profit taking by investors," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.

"The market was already showing some signs of fatigue last week but still managed to break new records," he said. "This Monday, the brokers just wanted to cash their money."

After several weeks of substantial increases, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 actually reached new highs on Friday and the Nasdaq on Thursday.

In the absence of major economic news on Monday, investors took the opportunity to withdraw some of their bets.

Despite everything, the indices continued to post a solid performance over the whole year, the Dow Jones having appreciated by 22% since the beginning of 2019, the Nasdaq by 35% and the S&P 500 by 28%.

The outlook for the global economy has improved somewhat in recent months, "allowing fears of a recession to subside and hopes of a rebound (in 2020) in corporate profits to strengthen ", underlines Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.

"With such significant growth, we get the idea that the stock market could soon endure a slump because such progress should trigger sales or rebalancing of the portfolio," he adds.

The latest news on the commercial front has not helped to reverse the trend.

According to a source in the Chinese daily South China Morning Post, Deputy Prime Minister Liu He is scheduled to travel to Washington next weekend for a visit culminating in the signing of the + phase 1+ trade agreement. .

Peter Navarro, one of the White House's chief economic advisers, said on Fox News that the signing should take place in a week or two, but declined to confirm information from the South China Morning Post.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt appreciated at 1.884% against 1.875% on Friday at the close.

© 2019 AFP