New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended clearly in the red on Friday, on the defensive against the results of mixed businesses and the threat of new American sanctions against China.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 2.55% to 23,723.69 points, and the Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, by 3.20% to 8,604.95 points.

The broader S&P 500 Index, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, lost 2.81% to 2,830.71 points.

"The market needed a break anyway, it's not a big deal," says Karl Haeling of LBBW.

Over April as a whole, the Dow Jones appreciated by 11.1% and the S&P 500 by 12.7%, the two indices recording their best monthly performance since 1987.

The Nasdaq rose 15.4%, its best month since 2000.

Over the week, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500, however, fell 0.2% and the Nasdaq by 0.3%.

Friday, market players digested the quarterly publications of several big names of the rating including Amazon (-7.60%), which warned that it would spend the $ 4 billion in operating profit expected this quarter to invest in management of the crisis, and Apple (-1.61%) which did not want to give forecasts for the current quarter.

President Donald Trump has also rekindled the flame of the trade war with China, saying that he is considering punitive taxes against Beijing after seeing indications that the new coronavirus is coming from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan.

"It seems incredible that he is choosing to go back to the front now given the state of the economy, but Mr. Trump seems to want to put attacks on China at the center of his new election campaign," said Haeling.

"The downturn in the market is not so much linked to the disappointments (generated by the various announcements from companies) as to the observation that their actions, as well as many others, have climbed too fast too strong", estimates Patrick O'Hare Briefing.

The S&P 500 has appreciated by 35% since March 23 even as the indicators reflect one after the other the severity of the economic shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed to stem its spread, the specialist underlines .

With the gradual lifting of containment measures, "we are now going to get into the thick of the recovery, and hopes for a restart will be confronted with the harsh reality on the ground," he noted. "Investors will readjust their risk-taking accordingly and we will probably see more resistance."

© 2020 AFP