New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended the week on a high note on Friday, showing optimism about the economic recovery in the United States and around the world after encouraging news earlier this week on the development of a vaccine against Covid -19.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones, gained 1.37% to 29,479.81 points.

The Nasdaq rose 1.02% to 11,829.29 points and the broader S&P 500 index gained 1.36% to 3,585.15 points, reaching a new record.

Over the week as a whole, the Dow Jones (+ 4.08%) and the S&P 500 (+ 2.16%) rose.

The Nasdaq, on the other hand, fell 0.55%.

"The markets have experienced several jolts since the sharp rise on Monday following hope for a vaccine against Covid-19", summarize analysts at Charles Schwab.

American laboratories Pfizer and German BioNTech assured Monday that their vaccine candidate was "90% effective" against Covid-19, according to preliminary data from the large-scale phase 3 trial underway, the last step before a request for 'approval.

"This has generated a movement of rotation towards cyclical (dependent on the economic situation, editor's note) and value (undervalued by the market, editor's note) to the detriment of the stock market giants with dazzling growth," Schwab analysts explain.

This explains in particular the weekly decline of the Nasdaq, where pillars such as Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Alphabet had a delicate week.

Financial players on Friday relegated concerns about the resurgence of the pandemic, which had tripped the market the day before.

The number of new daily cases in the United States, however, continues to increase: it exceeded 134,000 Thursday, with 1,703 new deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In total, the country has recorded more than 10.5 million cases and 242,600 deaths from Covid-19.

Among the values ​​of the day, Disney appreciated (+ 2.10%) after the meteoric increase in the number of subscribers to its Disney + streaming platform, which allowed it to relegate to the background a net loss of 710 million dollars in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2020, according to results released Thursday night.

Data analysis firm Palantir, which entered Wall Street at the end of September, climbed (+ 8.37%) after the publication of better-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday.

Among the indicators, consumer confidence fell in November in the United States for the first time since July, according to the preliminary estimate of the University of Michigan survey released on Friday.

© 2020 AFP