New York (AFP)

Wall Street cautiously closed lower on Tuesday, pending the outcome of the first presidential debate but also an agreement between Democrats and Republicans on a new economic aid plan, which is slow to materialize.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 0.48% to 27,452.66 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, yielded 0.29% to 11,085.25 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, also dropped 0.48% to 3,335.38 points.

"Investors are eagerly awaiting the first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden, which could create significant movements in the market," said Fernanda Horner of Schaeffer.

"Political developments are at the center of concerns with the first of three US presidential debates scheduled for tonight," Wells Fargo analysts also noted in a note.

Investors also continued to hope for further fiscal stimulus from Washington after Democrats in the House of Representatives unveiled a $ 2.2 trillion economic aid package, trillion less than the previous proposal.

But "if this new plan is smaller, it is still way above what Republicans expected," Schaeffer analyst warned.

After a good performance the day before, the New York indices briefly made a foray into the green Tuesday morning, after good news on consumer morale.

Consumer confidence jumped 15.5 points to reach 101.8 according to the Conference Board index, while analysts had expected 88.5 points.

However, this level remains much lower than that recorded in September 2019 (126.3) and in February 2020 (132.6), before the Covid-19 pandemic caused a drop in economic activity.

On Friday, the government will release official employment figures for September.

All sectors of the Extended S&P 500 Index, except communications, fell.

The financial sub-index fell further (-1.15%), as did that of energy (-2.73%).

Bank JPMorgan Chase, which on Tuesday agreed to pay $ 920 million for manipulating prices in the metals and treasury bill markets, dropped 0.83%.

This is the biggest financial penalty ever imposed in such a case.

Shale oil producing groups Devon Energy and WPX Energy, which had announced their intention to merge the day before, lost 2.45% and 3.48% respectively.

Electric truck maker Nikola continued its descent into hell, losing more than 7% as its resigned founder is accused of sexual assault by two women.

This revelation darkens a little more the image of a group in turmoil for several weeks and still in discussion with GM for a partnership.

The Tiffany share held up, yielding only 0.21% after luxury giant LVMH launched the legal counterattack, justifying its decision not to buy the American jeweler by its mismanagement in times of pandemic and by a request from the French government.

The jeweler retaliated during the day, once again believing that the French company was only seeking to evade its commitments and not to pay the price on which the two parties had agreed.

Many big tech titles also finished in the red, like Microsoft (-1.04%) or Apple (-0.76%), while Facebook gained 1.94%.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt fell to 0.6463% against 0.6528% Monday night.

© 2020 AFP