New York (AFP)

In the aftermath of a sharp drop, Wall Street ended up without a clear direction on Tuesday, won by anxiety one week before a US presidential election under high tension but also pulled by the good health of the American digital giants.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, of which several members have published their results, fell 0.80% to 27,463.19 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, on the other hand appreciated by 0.64% to 11,431.35 points.

The extended S&P 500 index for its part fell by 0.30% to 3,390.68 points.

As the day before, the New York square followed with apprehension the developments of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, where cases of new contaminations continue to climb, and in the world.

Several European countries, including France and Germany, are planning to step up their measures to combat the spread of the virus.

"The Covid, the absence of a stimulus plan in the United States and the nervousness linked to the American presidential election have a cumulative effect on the market", summarizes Quincy Krosby of Prudential.

Regarding the ballot next week, the business community is particularly concerned about the small gap between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden and a possible challenge to the results on the evening of November 3.

In this anxiety-provoking environment, the American tech giants survived, notably Amazon and Facebook, up more than 2% on Tuesday, which allowed the Nasdaq to end up in the green.

"The idea that supports the Nasdaq is that if growth falters because of the Covid, the market will rely on the strength of technology companies," notes Quincy Krosby of Prudential Financial.

Microsoft, which released its quarterly results after the close, rose a little (+ 0.69%) in electronic trading following the closure of Wall Street.

Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Facebook and Apple will share their third quarter figures on Thursday evening.

Among the values ​​of the day, 3M (-3.09%) and Caterpillar (-3.24%), both members of the Dow Jones, fell after reporting a drop in their net profit from July to September, their activity having been affected by the pandemic.

Merck (-1.08%), which is also part of the flagship Wall Street index, suffered from weak revenue growth due in particular to declining sales of its vaccine for cancer prevention of the cervix.

Among the other values ​​of the day, the American manufacturer of computer chips Xilinx climbed (+ 8.56%) after the announcement of its takeover by its rival Advanced Micro Devices (-4.07%) for 35 billion dollars in shares , an operation which accentuates the consolidation of a sector in full transformation.

© 2020 AFP