New York (AFP)

Still keeping an eye on the rise in bond rates, the New York Stock Exchange closed lower on Wednesday at the end of a checkered session, with a new plunge of the Nasdaq.

According to final results, the technology-intensive Nasdaq index posted its biggest two-day loss in six months, dropping 2.70% to 12,997.75 points.

The Dow Jones slipped 0.39% to 31,270.09 points.

The S&P 500 lost 1.31% to 3,819.72 points.

"Once again investors have dwelt on rising bond yields," said analysts at Wells Fargo.

Suddenly, the securities of the technological sector, said to be growth because these groups are greedy in investments to grow, suffered from the prospect of a more expensive rent of money.

Bond yields on 10-year Treasuries rebounded above 1.47% after closing at 1.39% the day before.

"The money that these companies will earn has less value with the rise in rates. This is the basic theory: when rates go up, the markets go down," said Gregori Volokhine, fund manager at Meeschaert Financial Services.

“But rates are also rising in anticipation of better days,” he said, the reluctance of the markets which had started the week on a huge rebound before retreating severely Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Stock Exchange also digested a report on employment in the private sector softer than expected, before the official unemployment figures on Friday.

The ADP survey on the private sector showed a sharp slowdown in job creation in February, to 117,000 against 180,000 expected.

- Very strong economy to come -

Still, analysts believe the official labor market report on Friday will be much more optimistic.

They predict 200,000 new jobs in February and an unemployment rate stable at 6.3%.

On the good news side, which portends strong growth in the second half of the year, President Joe Biden assured that at the end of May there would be enough vaccines for all adults in the United States.

The previous deadline was at the end of July.

Pfizer jumped 2.63%, Johnson & Johnson dropped 1.76%.

In addition, the massive economic support plan of 1.9 trillion dollars is close to being adopted, although it may come out at a lower amount.

This made Jamie Dimon, the CEO of the bank JPMorgan Chase, say on CBS, that with the support plan, it was necessary to foresee "a very strong economy at the end of the year and at the beginning of next year ".

While the finance, energy and industrial sectors held up well, technology stocks faltered, such as Apple (-2.45%), Facebook (-1.39%), Microsoft (-2 , 70%) or Square (-7.14%).

Very visited, the action of the Zoom application lost 8.37% after already -9% the day before, while it had announced a turnover multiplied by three in 2020.

The Lyft title soared 8.24% after the chauffeur-driven car rental service posted its best week of racing in late February since the start of the pandemic.

Shares of online mortgage lender Rocket Companies, prized by amateur traders on internet forums, continued to be volatile, falling more than 32% after closing up 71% the day before.

© 2021 AFP