New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange finished solidly in the green Thursday: the Dow Jones hit a new record for the second day in a row and the Nasdaq accelerated late in the session to mark its first gain of the week.

According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones Flagship Index rose 0.93% to 34,548.53 points.

After a start to the week in the red, the technology-intensive Nasdaq finished at 13,632.84 points, up 0.37%.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.82% to 4,201.62 points.

The session remained volatile, with a divergence remaining until shortly before the close, between traditional sectors of the economy and so-called growth sectors which include the technology sectors.

"The market is torn between the optimism of economic growth", which supports the actions of the traditional economy, "and the uncertainties on when the Fed will modify its very accommodating monetary policy", which weakens the so-called growth actions , more sensitive to rising interest rates, said Schwab analysts.

The panic which plunged the titles of pharmaceutical companies manufacturing anti-Covid-19 vaccines after the announcement that the United States was in favor of the lifting of patents, flattened at the end of the session.

Moderna reduced its losses to -1.44%, Pfizer lost only 0.99% and its German partner BioNtech -1.62%.

Novavax (+ 0.45%), whose vaccine is still under study, and Johnson and Johnson (+ 0.40%) have returned to positive territory.

"After the aggressive selling back on pharmaceuticals, investors realized that there is a difference between making a proposal to the World Health Organization (WHO) and reaching an agreement between 160 countries," noted Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert Financial Services, stressing that the German government was opposed to the lifting of patents.

"It took away a fear," he added.

"Everyone sells the same stocks, looking to take profits to buy something else," rather traditional economy stocks supposed to increase in value with the recovery, the source said.

"But we are starting to see, with the Gafa, that we also find growth, reasonable valuations and companies that will also benefit from the resumption of activities," said the analyst.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook all rose more than 1% on Thursday.

On the macroeconomic side, the news was good with weekly jobless claims down sharply in the United States, falling for the first time since the pandemic below the 500,000 mark.

Investors will watch the official employment figures for April on Friday before the opening of the New York market.

In total, 1 million jobs could have been created over the month, and the unemployment rate is expected to decline slightly, to 5.8% against 6%.

© 2021 AFP