New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange advanced Tuesday at the start of the session, moving forward after retreating last week and awaiting the passage before the US Senate of Janet Yellen, chosen by Joe Biden as new secretary of the Treasury.

At around 3:15 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.27% to 30,897.70 points.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, advanced 0.87% to 13,110.95 points and the extended S&P 500 index by 0.50% to 3,787.06 points.

The upper house of the US Congress received Ms. Yellen Tuesday morning for confirmation as head of the Ministry of Finance and the Economy.

The former president of the Fed should call on elected officials not to look at the expense at a time when Republicans are worried again about the public deficit.

President-elect Joe Biden, who will take office on Wednesday, presented a $ 1.9 trillion contingency plan last week to revive the U.S. economy hit by the coronavirus crisis.

These measures will be followed by an economic recovery plan, the outlines of which must be specified.

According to JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade, Ms. Yellen "should have a more pragmatic approach than the current Secretary of the Treasury (Steven Mnuchin, ed), which could raise concerns for banks and insurance companies who have benefited a lot flexibility over the past four years ".

Tuesday's session was also punctuated by the results of several big names in American finance.

The investment bank Goldman Sachs fell (-0.97%) despite the soaring of its profits in the last quarter of 2020 thanks to the strong growth of its investment banking activity.

Bank of America fell (-1.12%) after seeing its fourth quarter 2020 profits decline sharply, affected by low interest rates and the slowdown in its retail banking activity.

Among other stocks, the Stellantis group, the result of the marriage between car manufacturers Fiat Chrysler and PSA, was making a big debut on Wall Street, climbing more than 10%.

The manufacturer General Motors soared 7.06% after the announcement of a strategic partnership with the computer giant Microsoft (+ 0.82%) in the field of autonomous cars.

GM's Cruise subsidiary is now valued at more than $ 30 billion (25 billion euros).

The American conglomerate General Electric rose (+ 1.24%) after deciding to freeze pension benefits for its 2,800 employees in the United Kingdom.

Boeing appreciated (+ 2.04%) after the announcement by the European regulator that its model 737 MAX could return to the European sky "next week", 22 months after being grounded following two accidents.

© 2021 AFP