New York (AFP)

Wall Street opened cautiously in scattered order on Wednesday, watching for the outcome of a monetary meeting of the US Central Bank, which will disclose new economic forecasts while its president will hold a press conference at 6.30 p.m. GMT.

Around 2:30 p.m. GMT, the flagship index of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 0.31% to 28,082.61 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, which had opened modestly, had gone into negative territory at -0.10% to 11.178.81 points.

The extended S&P 500 index gained 0.18% to 3,407.45 points.

On Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange ended without direction trying to preserve its rebound after a black week when tech stocks had been rolled.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat on Tuesday and the Nasdaq gained 1.21%.

Better than expected results announcements from the carrier FedEx (+ 7.07%) gave momentum Wednesday at the start of the session.

FedEx saw its profit jump between June and August thanks to the enthusiasm of consumers for online orders during the pandemic.

The software maker Adobe, which has yet announced record quarterly results, was down slightly at the start of the session (-1.76%), its forecasts for the 4th quarter not exceeding what analysts had expected.

A mixed announcement from retail sales in August dampened this momentum, however.

Up for the third month in a row, they were less dynamic (+ 0.6%) than expected by analysts.

But all eyes were on the outcome of the Fed's monetary meeting, which issued its statement at 6:00 p.m. GMT, followed by a conference by its boss Jerome Powell.

In particular, the Fed must disclose its forecast for rate changes until 2023.

"The Fed has signaled that it is ready to do more if necessary" to help with economic recovery, "the Fed chairman can be expected to say more fiscal measures are needed," he said. esteemed Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.

"The US rating continues to rebound after recent losses when the market was at record highs," commented analysts Charles Schwab also stressing "the caution" of investors "before the monetary decision of the Fed and retail sales more sluggish than anticipated in August

The evolution of titles among tech leaders remained narrow and mixed.

Apple, which announced a new watch and a new subscription on Monday, was down 0.66%.

Facebook was down 1.8% after press reports indicating that the social media giant could face anti-trust lawsuits by the US Competition Commission (FTC).

The high-end electric car maker Tesla, for its part, was in positive territory (+ 1%), after a black week, when the stock had lost up to more than 20% in a single session.

Among the IPOs, the cloud data storage group (remote computing) Snowflake, co-founded by two French people in California, raised $ 3.4 billion for its entry on Wall Street on Wednesday, a record for a software company.

It is also the largest initial public offering on the New York market since the start of the year, according to Renaissance Capital.

Its introductory price will be $ 120.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt fell to 0.6691% against 0.6700% Tuesday night.

© 2020 AFP