New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange started the session slightly in the red on Thursday, catching its breath the day after new records while monitoring the coronavirus and its economic consequences.

Around 2:50 p.m. GMT, the Wall Street flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.03% to 29,339.09 points.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, dropped 0.06%, to 9,811.58 points, and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, was almost stable, at 3,386.19 points.

Wall Street finished sharply higher on Wednesday, taking the Nasdaq (+ 0.87%) and the S&P 500 (+ 0.47%) to new levels and pushing the Dow Jones up 0.40% as investors took notes the slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus epidemic in China.

"With few major elements to fuel the rise, it will be a little hard to continue this momentum, at least for now," said JJ Kinahan of TDAmeritrade.

Brokers continue to closely monitor the spread of the viral pneumonia epidemic in China and try to assess its economic consequences.

Beijing on Thursday reported a sharp drop in the number of new coronavirus contaminations, the lowest in nearly a month, with 673 new cases.

The Chinese Central Bank has at the same time given a new boost to the economy, largely paralyzed for almost a month by the measures to combat the coronavirus, by announcing a drop of one tenth of a point of one of its benchmark interest rates.

Richard Clarida, the number 2 of the American Central Bank (Fed), estimated in an interview with the chain of financial information CNBC that the American economy had started the year on good bases, in particular thanks to the conclusion of several commercial agreements.

But the coronavirus crisis will have "a noticeable impact on Chinese growth", at least in the first quarter, which could have repercussions on American companies sourcing from China, he added.

In terms of indicators, manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region (northeast of the United States) accelerated sharply in February, against expectations that expected a slowdown, according to the local antenna index of the Federal Reserve (Fed) released Thursday.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt fell, moving to 1.539% against 1.566% on Wednesday at the close.

© 2020 AFP