New York (AFP)
Wall Street ended in scattered order Friday after a jagged session, remaining cautious as the President announced several measures against China without relaunching a major trade war.
Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.07% to 25,383.11 points while the Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, gained 1.29% to 9,489.87 points.
The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, appreciated by 0.48% to 3,044.31 points.
Donald Trump having promised Thursday to speak on China Friday, without giving more details, the investors were awaiting the possible sanctions that the American president could impose.
Speaking finally at the end of the session, the tenant of the White House considered that the behavior of China towards Hong Kong was "a tragedy" for the world and announced restrictions on entry to the American territory for Chinese students. He also announced that he was launching the process of eliminating the exemptions granted to Hong Kong as part of the revocation of his special status.
"But it was feared that it would relaunch an escalation of retaliatory trade measures between the two countries," said Shawn Cruz of TD.
Mr. Trump did not mention any customs taxes and "for now, this should not bring us back as in 2018 and 2019, when the market was guided by trade tensions between China and the United States" , he adds. "What matters to investors remains the reopening of the economy."
This prospect carried the indices throughout May: the Dow Jones recorded a monthly increase of 4.3%, the Nasdaq of 6.8% and the S&P 500 of 4.5%.
Today's indicators, for their part, continued to show the effects of restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the Covid-19 disease on the economy, including a drop in household spending of 13.6% in April, but also brought encouraging signs.
While wages fell, household incomes increased at the same time by 10.5% thanks to the various aids provided by the authorities.
As a result, American savings are at an all-time high, with a household savings rate of 33%. This could encourage a recovery in consumption once the economy is reopened.
- Trump-Twitter -
Another positive element is that consumer confidence, as assessed by the University of Michigan, started to rise slightly in May.
On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt fell, moving towards 20:20 GMT at 0.6493% against 0.6900% Thursday evening.
Among the values of the day, Twitter lost 1.99% while tensions with Donald Trump, who struck a big blow Thursday by signing a decree to limit the judicial protection of social networks, continue.
The social network again intervened directly on a tweet from the American president Friday, signaling as a "apology of violence" a message on the clashes in Minneapolis.
The official White House account tweeted the same message in the process.
Car maker General Motors fell 3%. He said Thursday evening that the gradual resumption of production in its factories was going well and that he planned to accelerate from Monday the activity, in particular on three sites producing SUVs and on three sites producing pick-ups .
The wholesale chain Costo dropped 0.35% after having reported a 9.6% increase in sales over the three months ending April 5.
The group, which benefited at the beginning of the implementation of the containment measures of the rush of the Americans towards the massive purchase of toilet paper, bottles of water or groceries, also stressed that its sales had moved back in April.
© 2020 AFP