New York (AFP)

Wall Street retreated to the opening Thursday, investors digesting a new burst of results from companies like American Airlines and Procter & Gamble and remaining on their guard against the spread of a virus in China.

Around 2:50 p.m. GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.55% to 29,024.54 points.

The highly technological Nasdaq lost 0.42% to 9,344.81 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, lost 0.45% to 3,306.80 points.

Wall Street had finished without frank direction Wednesday, torn between the contrasting quarterly figures of big names of the dimension like IBM or Netflix: the Dow Jones had decreased by 0.03% while the Nasdaq, had gained 0.14%.

As the results season is in full swing, Thursday brought a new batch of various performances.

As an example, "Dow Jones member Procter & Gamble reported lower than expected sales, Comcast exceeded expectations, Southwest Airlines highlighted negative impact of flight ban of the 737 Max, Union Pacific posted lower-than-expected profits and Texas Instruments did better than expected, "said analysts at Charles Schwab.

Market players also continued to monitor the situation in China, where authorities confined millions of residents on Thursday to two major cities, including the metropolis of Wuhan, from which a new virus started to spread. worldwide and mobilizes international health authorities.

"The market reaction to this epidemic has focused on stocks of tourism-related businesses with Chinese exposure. Casino companies operating in Macau have seen their shares plummet, as have airlines," notes Art Hogan of National Holdings.

The World Health Organization (WHO) met again on Thursday its emergency committee to decide whether the new virus constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern".

"Over the past 20 years, WHO has declared 17 public health emergencies, such as SARS, Zika virus, Ebola and MERS," said Hogan. "While the human impact is immeasurable, the economic impact varies considerably in each situation. In general, the impact on the stock markets has tended to be short-lived and the markets have generally recovered their losses in 30, 60 or 90 days, "he adds.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt continued to decline, moving to 1.720% against 1.769% on Wednesday at the close.

© 2020 AFP