After records at the start of the session, Wall Street ends slightly down - France 24

New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended slightly lower on Tuesday, when it had opened on new records, tossed about by hopes of a strengthened US aid plan, after a proposal from the US House of Representatives.

According to final results, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.22% to 30,335.67 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, dropped 0.38% to 12,850.22 points and the extended S&P 500 index fell 0.22% to 3,727.04 points.

"After another push to new records late in the morning, the three main indices returned their gains despite the approval of the House of Representatives on Monday evening of a stimulus payment of $ 2,000 to American households" instead of 600 dollars, Schaeffer analysts noted.

In the middle of the day, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate Mitch McConnell rejected such a project immediately.

The Senate having the last word, this confirmed the decline of the indices.

The day before, Wall Street had posted new records, welcoming the last-minute approval by President Donald Trump on Sunday evening of a plan to support the US economy of 900 billion dollars, with a payment of 600 dollars to households according to their income.

Apart from the health care and consumer products sector, almost all sectors of the S&P 500 ended modestly.

Among the stocks of the day, Intel finished up almost 5% after an activist investor pushed the chipmaker to explore strategic alternatives, such as asset sales.

On the Covid-19 vaccine front, clinical trials to determine the safety and efficacy of immunization, led by the American biotechnology company Novavax, have started in the United States and Mexico.

It is the fifth candidate vaccine against Covid-19 tested in a phase 3 trial in the United States.

Novavax shares gained almost 3% while those of competitors Pfizer and Moderna ended up 0.62% and 2.68% respectively.

Boeing's stock took off 2% in session at the same time as the first commercial flight of a 737 MAX by American Airlines, after 20 months of grounding due to two crashes that killed 346 people.

But the upturn was deflated and the action ended in balance.

In the bond market, the 10-year yield on Treasuries rose very slightly to 0.9347% from 0.9231% on Monday.

© 2020 AFP