New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher on Tuesday, encouraged by signs of stabilization of the coronavirus pandemic as the season for quarterly corporate earnings started on a mixed note.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, climbed 2.39% to 23,949.76 points and the Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, of 3.95%, to 8,515.74 points.

The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, gained 3.06% to 2,846.06 points.

"The numbers are starting to really seem to show an improvement in the situation in Europe and the United States in terms of slowing the spread of the virus," said Karl Haeling of LBBW. "This suggests to investors that we are a little closer now to a reopening of the economy," he said.

Several European countries have in fact taken or are about to take measures to deconfinite their populations, Spain allowing for example workers to return to factories and construction sites.

In the United States, the rate of contamination is stabilizing and the governor of New York State, epicenter of the crisis in the step, estimated that "the worst (was) past" in his area.

Donald Trump now seems ready to go to conflict with the governors on the question of who will decide the strategy of deconfinement in the country. But these differences suggest that the conversation on the subject is well on the table.

Enough to reassure investors at a time when the big companies on the list are starting to release their results for the first quarter, which had started well before the coronavirus paralyzed economic activity in March.

Banks JPMorgan Chase (-2.74%) like Wells Fargo (-3.98%) saw their profits plunge due to the reserves that these financial institutions had to set aside to deal with the potential defaults of customers affected by the Covid-19.

Johnson & Johnson (+ 4.48%) has for its part lowered its financial ambitions for the whole of the 2020 financial year, in particular because of investments to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, but nevertheless increased its dividend .

For Karl Haeling, "this earnings season is going to be quite strange because no one should really pay attention to the usual numbers, investors will focus on comments from leaders during conference calls."

Market players "want to know if companies have enough backbones to weather the storm," he adds.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the debt of the United States fell to 0.7456% against 0.7713% at the close on Monday.

© 2020 AFP