New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended higher Thursday after a jagged session, rebounding in the aftermath of another difficult day, thanks in particular to the good shape of stocks stars of the tech and the oil sector.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, appreciated 0.95% to 20,087.19 points, after dropping up to 3.6% during the session.

The highly technological Nasdaq rose 2.30% to 7,150.58 points. It was helped by the growth of flagship titles like Netflix (5.25%), Facebook (+ 4.20%), Amazon (+ 2.78%) and Alphabet, the parent company of Google (+ 1.88% ).

The broad S&P 500 index rose 0.47% to 2,409.39 points.

The financial center was also helped by the sharp rebound in the price of a barrel of oil in New York (+ 24%), which allowed ExxonMobil to take 3.99% and Chevron 4.23%.

Panic had seized Wall Street again Wednesday, the Dow Jones losing notably 6.30%, while market players were alarmed by the consequences on the economy of the drastic containment measures put in place to fight against the spread of the coronavirus . The disease has killed at least 9,827 people worldwide since its onset in December, according to a report by AFP from official sources Thursday at 7:00 p.m. GMT.

However, the central banks are going out of their way to try to appease investors.

The European Central Bank, for example, presented a 750 billion-euro "emergency" plan late Wednesday.

The American Federal Reserve, which has injected hundreds of billions of dollars for several days to ensure that operators can access problem-free money on the markets, announced again the night of Wednesday to Thursday the establishment a new support mechanism for mutual funds on the money market to avoid a catastrophic scenario as in September 2008.

American parliamentarians and the White House are also negotiating a gigantic economic recovery plan of more than $ 1,000 billion.

But investors remain on their guard.

"It is encouraging to see a rebound after starting the session in the red, it is the technical sign that all those who wanted to sell are exhausted and that the market could appear to rise for another few days," said Sam Stovall from CFRA.

"But a reflex rebound does not mean the end of the drop in indices," he adds.

"The markets are trying to digest day after day, even minute after minute, all the data on the progress of the virus and on the evolution in the countries where the first cases arrived", notes for his part Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager for Globalt.

"And investors are wondering if we can fight the virus and contain the economic damage with the monetary, budgetary and health resources we have," he adds. "The irony in all of this is that the most effective way to contain the virus, containment (as in Italy or France), is the one that would have the most devastating consequences for the economy."

"We just don't know where it will all end, it's unprecedented, and that's why the market is so hysterical," says the specialist.

© 2020 AFP