New York (AFP)
The New York Stock Exchange struggled to make up its mind on Wednesday, finally ending in a small decline, in a wait-and-see attitude towards negotiations between elected Democrats and Republicans on new economic aid measures in the United States.
Its flagship index, the Dow Jones, lost 0.35% to 28,210.82 points, the Nasdaq lost 0.28% to 11,484.69 points and the extended S&P 500 index lost 0.22% to 3,435.56 points .
All three indices fluctuated throughout the session within a narrow margin between positive and negative territory.
"Investors seemed to be holding their breath while awaiting the impact of the second wave of Covid-19 on US economic growth" and watching for progress in the negotiations of a new plan to support the economy, said Sam Stovall, investment strategist at CFRA.
This analyst thinks that even "if an agreement were to emerge from the House of Representatives, it will not end up being approved by the Senate", with a Republican majority, before the elections of November 3.
The markets "are tired of the + stimulus" talks, or rather tired of all the false alarms about a possible agreement soon, "said Patrick O'Hare for his part.
The publication of the Fed's Beige Book, an economic report depicting a "mild to modest" growth economy, briefly supported the market above equilibrium during the session.
US businesses are generally optimistic about the economic outlook, buoyed by a slow recovery that has allowed some sectors to rehire, but the situation differs greatly from one sector to another, according to the Fed's survey.
The spectacular good results of Snap (+ 28.30%), owner of the popular Snapchat application, fueled optimism on the headlines of other social networks such as Facebook (+ 4.17%) and Twitter (+ 8.39 %).
The slowdown in the flow of new Netflix subscribers (-6.92%) and Quibi's difficulties in an increasingly competitive streaming market seemed to benefit Disney (+ 1.34%).
After the close, premium electric car maker Tesla announced a doubling of its third-quarter net profit, which pushed the stock up nearly 2% after the bell from + 0.17% at the close.
© 2020 AFP