Wall Street hesitates at opening in the aftermath of a sharp rise - France 24

New York (AFP)

Wall Street moved in dispersed order Tuesday at the start of the session after having made strong progress the day before, awaiting the hearing before the US Senate of the head of the Fed and the Secretary of the Treasury.

Around 1:45 p.m. GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.85% to 24,388.27 points.

The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, lost 0.50% to 2,939.13 points.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, however glittered 0.06% at 9,240.63 points.

The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher Monday, driven by encouraging preliminary results of clinical trials on a vaccine against the coronavirus: the Dow Jones had climbed 3.87% and the Nasdaq by 2.44%.

The head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and the US Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, will be heard by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee from 2:00 p.m. GMT.

For Patrick O'Hare of Briefing, Mr. Powell's remarks sent to the committee in advance are "to say the least."

The president of the Fed indicates in particular that his institution "is committed to using all (his) range of tools to support the economy in these difficult times even if we recognize that these actions are only part of a more wide of the public sector. "

As for Mr. Mnuchin, he should be questioned about the federal loan program for small and medium-sized businesses and the rules that prevent certain businesses from participating, suggests Christopher Low of FHN Financial.

Among the indicators, private housing starts in the United States fell by more than 30% in April under the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the Commerce Department published on Tuesday.

Walmart also announced Tuesday, before the opening of the stock market, solid quarterly results, taking advantage in particular of the explosion of online sales and an increase in the frequentation of its stores during the pandemic.

Its title rose 1.39% on the New York square.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt fell slightly, moving to 0.7127% against 0.7257% Monday evening.

© 2020 AFP