New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange began muted Thursday its last session of a prosperous and tumultuous 2020 for the markets, with the slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

At 3:00 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones was almost stable at -0.03%, the Nasdaq gave up -0.12% and the S&P 500 scrambled + 0.03%.

The day before, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained 0.24% to 30,409.56 points, setting a new record, the fourth in December.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.15% to 12,870.00 points and the extended S&P 500 index rose 0.13% to 3,732.04 points.

Friday the markets will be closed to observe the New Year.

"US stocks are mixed at the start of this final session for 2020 with a slight volume of trade given the multitude of global markets closed or in abbreviated session", noted Schwab analysts.

"2020 saw the most severe plunge into recession followed by the fastest rebound between the upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic and the response to it," they added in a note.

The stock market should thus end the year with solid returns even if the pandemic has brought the world's largest economy to its knees and thrown millions of people out of work.

Favored by the ultra-accommodative monetary policy of the American Central Bank (Fed) which injected billions of dollars of liquidity into the financial system and kept interest rates close to zero, investors turned overwhelmingly to equities, in priority those of the tech, their better performance.

Despite the March crash caused by the outbreak of the epidemic, the Dow Jones is heading for an increase of 7% over the year and the extended S&P 500 index, more representative of the American market, towards an advance of 15%, highlights Art Hogan of Briefing.

But it is the Nasdaq, where the largest technology stocks are concentrated, which will register the most spectacular increase with a jump of 43%.

Thursday, investors remained on the reserve, despite new weekly jobless claims in decline and fewer than expected but still massive (787,000).

All sectors of the S&P 500 were stable or weakening modestly, except communications and services.

In the bond market, the 10-year yield on Treasuries was down slightly to 0.9182% from 0.9231% on Wednesday.

© 2020 AFP