New York (AFP)

Wall Street evolved in dispersed order Thursday at the start of the session, digesting the announcement of a drop in new weekly claims for unemployment benefits in the United States.

Around 1:50 p.m. GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.11% to 27,795.30 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, took 0.43% to 11,059.48 points.

The broader S&P 500 S&P 500 index was up 0.04% to 3,881.68 points, aiming for a new high at the close.

The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher on Wednesday, taking advantage of the rise in technology stocks and reacting positively to the choice of Kamala Harris as Democrat Joe Biden's running mate for the November presidential election: the Dow Jones had won 1, 05% and the Nasdaq was up 2.13%.

New jobless claims fell last week in the United States, falling below the million mark for the first time since March, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department.

Some 963,000 people registered as unemployed in the United States between August 2 and 8, down from 1.19 million the week before. It is also much less than expected by analysts, who expected 1.15 million.

However, observes Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com, “new allowance requests are about four times larger than what the market was used to before the surge in late March” when millions of Americans lost their money. jobs, hit by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Market players also remained attentive to parliamentary negotiations around new stimulus measures to help American communities, businesses and households, but the discussions seemed to be stalling.

Faced with the lack of progress, Donald Trump signed four decrees last Saturday on a wage freeze, additional help for the unemployed, protections against expulsions and a postponement of the repayment of student loans.

However, these temporary measures risk being challenged in court since it is in Congress that the US Constitution vests most of the country's budget decisions.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose to 0.6882% against 0.6747% Wednesday night.

© 2020 AFP