New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange was in disarray on Tuesday morning, reassured by the good results of American retail giants, but disappointed by housing starts in the United States last month.

Around 2:05 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.30% to 34,223.73 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, rose 0.24% to 13,410.70 points, while the broader S&P 500 index dropped 0.20% to 4,154.98 points.

"This morning, Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) became the last big companies to easily beat analysts' average forecasts," notes JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade.

"Supermarkets are in very good health and consumers are too."

Boosted by government aid to American households, Walmart sales advanced in the first quarter.

The group, whose action rose 2.61% on Wall Street, raised its annual profit forecast.

Home Depot, a specialist in home furnishings, for its part, took advantage of the popularity of DIY during the pandemic to increase its quarterly sales.

However, the company's stock lost 0.65%.

The Macy's department store chain (+ 0.47%) also did better than expected and revised upwards forecasts for the year.

On Wednesday, the Target and Lowe's groups will continue the wave of results in the American retail sector.

Among the other values ​​of the day, the e-commerce giant Amazon (+ 0.68%) is in discussions with a view to the acquisition of the Hollywood studio MGM, behind the James Bond franchise, for 9 billion dollars, several media reported on Tuesday.

Tesla, which has only finished twice in the green since the start of May, was down 0.86%.

Michael Burry, the manager of the Scion Capital hedge fund, made famous by the movie "The Big Short", made a downside bet on the stock of the electric vehicle maker.

Enthusiasm on the earnings front was tempered by disappointing US new home starts.

These declined much more than expected in April, penalized by the difficulties of supplying construction materials on a global level despite a still strong demand, according to data from the Department of Commerce.

Last month, 1.569 million homes and private buildings began construction across the country, on an annualized, seasonally adjusted basis, down 9.5% from March.

Analysts were expecting 1.715 million housing starts.

© 2021 AFP