New York (AFP)

Wall Street ended in disarray on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq posting a strong rebound in the tech sector while the Dow Jones suffered profit taking after being buoyed by enthusiasm around a future vaccine against Covid-19.

According to final results at the close, the index of 30 flagship stocks of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones lost 0.08% to 29,397.63 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, jumped 2.01% to 11,786.43 points, after two sessions of decline.

The broader S&P 500 index advanced 0.77% to 3,572.66 points.

“Monday's news of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNtech that is believed to be over 90% effective continued to boost investor morale,” Schwab analysts said.

"Stocks in the tech sector, which had been under heavy selling pressure the past two sessions, rebounded," they added, in a quieter-than-usual session due to the semi-light. November 11 holiday or "Veterans Day" in the United States.

The bond market remained closed.

At the start of the session, the Dow Jones index got off to a strong start, surpassing its last record in February for a moment, before taking profit.

The market has seen "profit-taking in the industrial and transportation sectors while the tech sector has recovered from being somewhat oversold" in recent sessions, said Peter Cardillo, chief analyst for Spartan Capital Securities.

After the announcement of the American laboratories Pfizer, investors rushed Monday and Tuesday on the values ​​of the traditional economy such as air transport or hotels, regaining confidence in the promise of a return to normal life with the insurance of a vaccine.

But Wednesday, according to analysts at Briefing, "this rotation" of investor interest "seemed to be reversing" again by focusing on "growth stocks" like that of technology.

The volatility of the market promised in any case "to remain strong", assured Sam Stovall of CFRA, "in particular because of the question of the elections still pending and the increase in cases of Covid-19 in the United States".

While his Democratic opponent Joe Biden was declared the winner of the November 3 election on Saturday, President Donald Trump is contesting the results and his side has filed for legal action.

On the face of the epidemic, the average contamination now exceeds 100,000 new cases each day in the United States and the hospital system is under strain.

On Wednesday, Christine Lagarde, President of the American Central Bank (ECB) also warned that the recovery in the euro area promised to be "unstable, on an on-off mode" despite a vaccine.

The big tech titles are back in the green like Amazon (+ 3.37%), Microsoft (+ 2.63%) or the payment service Paypal (+ 4.90%).

The Zoom videoconferencing application emerged from its descent into hell over the past few days (+ 9.93%).

After taking advantage of the announcement of its vaccine, the share of Pfizer fell a little to 38.52 dollars (-0.41%).

The market has learned that its CEO Albert Bourla has sold for 5.6 million dollars of shares of the American laboratory, the day of the announcement by the group of good preliminary results on the effectiveness of a vaccine against the Covid- 19.

These transfers were planned in advance, said a spokesperson.

© 2020 AFP