New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange finished in the red on Thursday, weakened at the very end of the session by the fear of a rise in Sino-American tensions after the announcement by Donald Trump of a press conference on China Friday.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell by 0.58% to 25,400.64 points and the Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, by 0.46% to 9,368.99 points.

The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, lost 0.21% to 3,029.73 points. Like the Dow Jones, he spent the whole session in the green before dodging after the words of the American president.

The latter said he would give a press conference on China on Friday, without giving more details on its content.

But the White House tenant has raised his voice against Beijing for several weeks by accusing China of being responsible for the spread of the new coronavirus across the planet.

On Wednesday, the American diplomat Mike Pompeo also affirmed that Hong Kong no longer enjoyed the promised autonomy vis-à-vis Beijing, and therefore could no longer benefit from its current trade privileges with the United States.

The US threat was described as "barbaric" on Thursday by the Chinese Foreign Ministry's representation in Hong Kong

"We are starting to hear more and more speculation about the possible consequences of all these tensions," notes JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade. "For the moment these are mostly words but we are paying attention because, as we have seen in the past in similar situations, when the tone begins to rise, it goes very quickly," adds the market specialist.

The signs were carried since the beginning of the week by the hope of a progressive resumption of the activity as the restrictions imposed to stop the pandemic of Covid-19 are lifted.

The indicators released on Thursday again showed the severe impact of the health crisis on the US economy but also suggested that a rebound may be in sight.

For example, while just over 2.12 million people were unemployed again for the first time in the past week, the total number of unemployed workers receiving unemployment benefits in the United States fell for the first time since the onset of the crisis. weekdays from May 10 to 16.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt rose a little, evolving around 8:15 PM GMT at 0.6933% against 0.6819% Wednesday evening.

© 2020 AFP