New York (AFP)

Wall Street took off Tuesday, rebounding sharply in the aftermath of the heaviest drop in New York indices since 2008 with the hope of economic support measures in the United States to cope with the impact of the coronavirus.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, climbed 4.89% to 25,018.16 points.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, took 4.96% to 8,344.25 points. The broad S&P 500 index gained 4.94% to 2,882.23 points.

Despite this marked increase, the New York indexes played on the roller coaster on Tuesday, starting up sharply, then retreating towards the middle of the session before ending in a whirlwind.

According to Karl Haeling of LBBW, "this reflects the high level of uncertainty in the market. It does not take operators much to panic or, on the contrary, get excited".

Monday, the New York place had tumbled, panicked by the oil crash, which had seen black gold fall by about 25%, as well as by the global spread of the coronavirus and its economic effects.

These fears were far from being dispelled on Tuesday because "nobody knows how much the turnover of companies will be affected", explains Mr. Haeling.

But investors seemed somewhat reassured by the prospects for economic support measures mentioned by the White House.

According to the financial news channel CNBC, the American president would have proposed Tuesday the abolition of social charges and contributions until the end of the year during a meeting with republican elected officials.

"There is a feeling that the worse the virus gets, the stronger the supports will be," said Haeling.

Donald Trump also urged the Fed to cut interest rates again, calling the US central bank on Twitter "shabby" and "slow."

The institution is scheduled to hold its next monetary policy meeting next week and investors anticipate further overnight rate cuts after the surprise half-point cut announced last Tuesday.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on American debt, which had hit its historic low the previous day, rose sharply, standing at 0.7808% around 20:25 GMT.

© 2020 AFP