New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange fell at the opening Friday in the absence of progress in negotiations of a plan to support the US economy.

At 3:00 p.m. GMT, the flagship Dow Jones index lost 0.16%, the technology-dominated Nasdaq dropped 0.38% and the extended S&P 500 index dropped 0.36%.

The day before, which had seen the smashing IPO of Airbnb, the flagship Dow Jones index had already ended down 0.23% to 29,999.26 points.

The Nasdaq had advanced 0.54% to 12,405.81 points.

The broader S&P 500 index fell 0.13% to 3,668.05 points.

“After having spun, supported by strong tailwinds, the market seems to be bogged down,” said Patrick O'Hare in an opening note as Wall Street broke records in the past few weeks.

"His progress has slowed down, but that doesn't mean there aren't always speedboats passing by," he added, referring to the stormy introductions from Airbnb on Thursday and food delivery man Doordash Wednesday.

At the opening, the title of the housing rental platform Airbnb, which had more than doubled when it went public on Thursday (+ 113%), remained positive (+ 2.50%).

Doordash, on the other hand, which had finished up 85% the day it went public, lost almost 8%.

Investors also kept in mind the negotiations that are blocking Congress on the plan to support the economy, Democrats and Republicans still having failed to put aside their deep differences.

Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, welcomed "significant progress" in the discussions, but does not rule out that elected officials spend part of their Christmas vacation negotiating.

"There is still optimism over Covid-19 vaccines but agreements on an aid package and a UK trade deal on Brexit remain elusive," Schwab analysts commented.

The market welcomed the first estimate of consumer confidence from the University of Michigan for December, released in the morning, which helped to recover a little the indices that started badly at the opening.

The confidence index climbed to 81.4 points from 76.9 points in November as analysts forecast a decline.

Disney climbed (+ 8.56%) after presenting the day before to investors its offensive and its success in streaming with Disney +.

The title of the Pfizer laboratory, whose vaccine is awaiting an imminent green light from the American health authorities, was volatile and dropped 1.25%.

The bond yield on 10-year Treasury bills lost ground to 0.8849% against 0.9063%, with bonds, a safe bet, attracting investors.

© 2020 AFP