New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Friday, ending the week on further profit taking and a gloomy inflation-linked rating in the United States.

The Dow Jones index ended down 0.86% to 34,687.85 points, the Nasdaq 0.80% to 14,427.23 points and the extended S&P 500 index 0.75% to 4,327.16 points.

For Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com, the session was marked, for the third day in a row, by profit taking.

This is "not unusual at this transitional stage in midsummer, with people waiting for a little more clarity" on the direction of the economy for the coming months, the analyst explained.

“Prior to this week, the prevailing rhetoric was that the market was going to catch its breath,” he added, which he did after confirming the good quarterly figures released by companies this week in the first salvo of results.

On the macroeconomic level, the monthly survey of the University of Michigan, published Friday in the middle of the morning in the United States, helped to turn the trend after an opening of Wall Street upwards.

According to this indicator, US consumer confidence deteriorated markedly in July, in large part due to higher prices.

The proportion of those who complained about inflation thus reached a record since this parameter was measured, in the early 1960s.

However, it was not "a panic session," said Patrick O'Hare, even if the decline in indices accelerated at the end of the session.

Several stocks were roughed up on Friday, including oil companies, undermined by uncertainties about the behavior of OPEC members and their OPEC + allies, who have still not reached a production agreement.

Chevron lost 2.65% to $ 98.62, Exxon Mobil 2.77% to $ 98.62 and ConocoPhillips 2.77% also to $ 55.50.

Electric vehicle maker Lordstown Motors (-3.94% to $ 8.54) suffered from an announcement in a document filed with the U.S. Markets Constable, the SEC, of ​​an ongoing federal investigation into the activities of the group.

The announcement also made it clear that the SEC has asked the manufacturer for documents, as part of its own investigation.

The American biotechnology company Moderna (+ 10.30% to 286.43 dollars) benefited from the announcement of its inclusion in the extended S&P 500 index. The title had crossed for the first time the 100 billion dollars of market capitalization closing on Thursday.

After having started the session well oriented by the announcement of discussions on the possible takeover of GlobalFoundries by its competitor Intel, the semiconductor sector slipped, until the close.

After a recent acceleration due to the recovery of the economy but also to a wind of consolidation blowing through the industry, stocks are stalling.

Intel lost 1.51%, Nvidia 4.25%, and Texas Instruments 1.14%.

In the bond market, the rate of US 10-year government bonds fell again below 1.30% to 1.29%, not very sensitive to news on the perception of inflation of American consumers.

© 2021 AFP