New York (AFP)

Wall Street retreated Friday at the start of the session, again seeming to be affected by the progression of the coronavirus epidemic and the recommendations of the US State Department not to travel to China.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.94% to 28,856.79 points around 2:55 pm GMT.

The highly technological Nasdaq lost 0.35% to 9,265.99 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, lost 0.63% to 3,262.85 points.

Several analysts were puzzled about the reasons for the decline at the start of the session, given the increase in indices observed the day before shortly before the close after announcements by the World Health Organization on the coronavirus.

WHO had declared the international emergency in the face of the epidemic of viral pneumonia, but had not called for limiting travel. The Dow Jones rose 0.43% on Thursday and the Nasdaq 0.26%.

"It costs us to say it, but the main excuse today is the concerns around the coronavirus," observes Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.

"These same concerns seemed to have been eliminated yesterday with the rebound at the end of the session," said the expert.

In the United States, the State Department, however, enjoined American nationals Thursday "not to go" to China because of the virus.

The toll of the epidemic increased to 213 dead. The number of infected patients approaches 10,000 in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao), exceeding that reached during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic in 2002-2003.

The weekend on Wall Street also continued to be punctuated by the quarterly results of S&P 500 companies.

Thursday after the close, Amazon posted much better results than expected in the last quarter of 2019, buoyed by a "record" holiday season. The market value of the giant of online business exceeded Friday at the start of the session 1,000 billion dollars, a symbolic threshold that Amazon had already crossed in September 2018.

The tech giant's share climbed more than 8% on Wall Street.

Caterpillar fell 1.21% after announcing a pessimistic outlook for 2020 when its results were published, highlighting the "uncertainties" thinking about the world economy.

Oil majors Chevron (-3.23%) and ExxonMobil (-2.86%) were also down after mixed results.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate of American debt was down, at 1.538% against 1.586% the day before at the close.

© 2020 AFP