New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended in the red Tuesday, accentuating its losses at the end of the session, after having appreciated significantly the day before and after hearings before the American Senate of the head of the Fed and the secretary of the Treasury.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.59% to 24,206.86 points.

The highly technological Nasdaq fell 0.54% to 9,185.10 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, fell 1.05% to 2,922.94 points.

After having risen sharply on Monday thanks in particular to encouraging results from clinical trials by an American laboratory for a vaccine against the coronavirus, the New York place seemed to take a break on Tuesday before taking a more frank step shortly before the close.

The session was moderated by hearings from the President of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Mr. Mnuchin in particular estimated that the shutdown of the American economy because of the pandemic posed a "risk of lasting damage" while affirming that the reopening of the activity of the companies must be done " balanced and safe way. "

According to Christopher Low of FHN Financial, strong partisan divisions in the US Congress, however, limit the options of the Fed and the Treasury.

The two institutions will be "extremely cautious about their approach to future bank loan programs," said Low, who said that "each party acts in a self-interested manner."

The White House approved several components of small business loan programs totaling $ 669 billion in early May.

These programs are part of a titanic plan to support the US economy of $ 2.2 trillion in late March, supplemented by an additional $ 500 billion in late April.

The Trump administration has said it plans to take further steps but wants to take a break for the time being.

"Aid to states is seen as essential in preparing the ground for a rapid restart, but the fact that the two parties barely manage to work together does not help," said Low.

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.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt fell, to 0.6915% against 0.7257% Monday evening.

© 2020 AFP