New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange fell sharply on Monday in a market worried about the global health situation, losing hope on the American recovery plan and fearing the outcome of the presidential election of November 3 in the United States.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.29% to 27,685.38 points, recording its worst drop since early September.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, lost 1.64% to 11,358.94 points and the extended S&P 500 index lost 1.86% to 3,400.97 points.

The New York Stock Exchange is concerned about the acceleration of the pandemic in Europe and the United States, where records of new cases of contamination have been broken.

But for Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert Financial Services, the main fear in financial markets comes from the lack of progress in negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress on new aid measures.

Voting a compromise text before the election is now highly unlikely, according to most experts.

This uncertainty comes on top of the fact that the gap appears to have narrowed between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the home stretch before the election.

"The hypothesis of a + gridlock + (dead end, editor's note) becomes possible, namely a victory for Joe Biden in the presidency but without a majority in the Senate", observes Mr. Volokhine.

"Such a scenario would make a recovery plan extremely difficult and the market adjusts to that", adds the expert.

Investors are also awaiting the quarterly results of the American digital giants.

After Microsoft on Tuesday, Apple, Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon and Facebook will simultaneously unveil Thursday, after the close of New York, their turnover and profits from July to September.

For Mr. Volokhine, the plunge of the manufacturer of software packages SAP on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Monday, after the downward revision of its forecasts for 2020, could be a sign of bad omen.

If the German group is in no way comparable to the American behemoths in terms of size and stock market weight, the business community "is wondering if what happened to SAP can also happen in the big tech companies", indicates the expert.

Among the values ​​of the day, Dunkin 'Brands (+ 16.12%), parent company of Dunkin' donuts and coffee chains and Baskin-Robbins ice cream, soared after confirming that it was in negotiations to sell itself to the company. specializing in Inspire Brands catering.

U.S. toy maker Hasbro (-9.35%) fell after mixed results in the third quarter, marked by strong board game sales and struggles for its pandemic-stricken cartoon production house eOne.

The British laboratory AstraZeneca (+ 2.06%) rose after announcing that its vaccine under development against Covid-19 was causing an encouraging immune response from young adults and the elderly.

© 2020 AFP