New York (AFP)

Wall Street was carried at the start of the session on Friday by quarterly results significantly higher than the expectations of Alphabet (parent company of Google and YouTube), Amazon, Facebook and Apple, but saw its momentum slowed down by the decline in other sectors.

Around 2:15 p.m. GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 0.43% to 26,200.96 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, rose 0.40% to 10,630.39 points.

The extended S&P 500 index lost 0.11% to 3,242.67 points.

The New York Stock Exchange ended in dispersed order Thursday, torn between the historic fall in the GDP of the United States in the second quarter, synonymous with official entry into recession, and the good health of the technological giants: the Dow Jones had given up 0, 85%, while the Nasdaq appreciated 0.43%.

Ignoring the pandemic and the collapsing US economy, US internet giants stunned Wall Street after Thursday's close by posting cheeky profits, a testament to the strengthening of the digital economy during lockdown.

Amazon doubled its net profit to $ 5.2 billion.

Facebook and Apple did not seem to be affected by the economic situation or the cuts in the advertising budgets of advertisers.

The only downside is Alphabet's profits, which reached $ 7 billion, were down from last year.

"Those who were anticipating a rise in the stock market have the green light to buy tech stocks, the results having been mind-blowing at all levels, in particular for Apple, whose stock market value could reach $ 2,000 billion by the end of this year. the year, "said Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities.

"The resilience of the sector has been at the heart of the equity market's V-rally. We believe tech stocks could gain another 20-30%, with this week's results acting as a positive catalyst," said Ives.

At the start of the New York session, Amazon (+ 4.17%), Facebook (+ 7.34%) and Apple (+ 5.57%) were up, while Alphabet lost 4.50%.

- Major losses for the majors -

However, the New York market saw its progress limited by the decline of other major stocks, including the oil major Chevron (-4.31%), which suffered a loss of more than $ 8 billion in the second quarter due in particular to the fall in the price of black gold.

ExxonMobil also posted a heavy net loss of $ 1.1 billion, the worst since its merger in 1999, and saw its stock fall 1.10%.

US construction and construction machinery maker Caterpillar - a barometer of the real economy - fell 4.24%. The group posted better-than-expected results in the second quarter but warned that the coronavirus pandemic made the future particularly uncertain.

The American pharmaceutical laboratory Merck (+ 1.06%), for its part unveiled better than expected results in the second quarter and raised its annual forecasts estimating that the worst of the impact of the new coronavirus pandemic was behind it.

Among Friday's indicators, economic activity in the predominantly manufacturing-dominated Chicago area surged dramatically in July, turning green again and reaching its highest level since May 2019, according to the Directors' Index. purchases from the ISM association.

Consumer confidence in the United States fell again in July, weighed down by the rebound of Covid-19 in the country, according to the final estimate of the University of Michigan survey.

As for household spending, it rose 5.6% in June, below analysts' forecasts, according to data from the Commerce Department.

In the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose to 0.5511%, against 0.5462% Thursday night.

© 2020 AFP