New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended the week in the red on Friday, as tech stocks were weighed down by a disappointing outlook from Amazon as concerns persist over the spread of the Delta variant.

According to final figures at the close, the Dow Jones index concluded down 0.42% to 34,935.47 points.

The high-tech Nasdaq dropped 0.71% to 14,672.68 points.

The broader S&P 500 index fell 0.54% to 4,395.26 points.

The three indices are down slightly over the week.

E-commerce giant Amazon, which reported disappointing sales the day before after the market closed, fell 7.56% to $ 3,327.59 despite a strong profit.

Its quarterly turnover, yet up 27%, turned out to be $ 2 billion lower than forecast, to $ 113.1 billion.

In addition, Amazon was fined Luxembourg 746 million euros for failing to comply with European rules on the protection of private data.

Seven of the eleven sectors of the S&P 500 concluded in the red, starting with consumer products (-2.84%) but also the oil sector (-1.85%).

The Caterpillar construction equipment group, a heavyweight of the Dow Jones, dropped 2.67% despite positive results.

With concerns about the renewed restrictions on the spread of the Delta variant, "we have the impression that the positive things for the markets are behind us," summed up Gregori Volokhine, of Meeschaert Financial Services.

“The results of the companies have been so good that it is difficult to imagine that they will be better” in the future, added the fund manager.

"Some companies have taken advantage of the pandemic, others have taken advantage of the resumption of activity and here we are in front of an unknown, we do not really know in which direction the activity will go," he said. .

- Last session of the month -

For Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities, "investors took some money off the table" for the last session of the month.

"Over the past ten years, August has been the toughest month for equities," warned Kathy Lien, analyst at BK Asset Management, saying that investors "were positioning themselves for them. weeks to come ".

On the macroeconomic level, however, the indicators have been rather positive.

Consumer spending rose 1% in June and inflation remained stable over the month, however remaining at 4% year on year.

Investors also remained concerned "about Chinese measures against their big companies," Schwab analysts said.

Since the beginning of July, a series of Chinese companies listed on Wall Street have been subject to restrictions and investigations by Beijing, which has plunged these stocks and created volatility.

Friday the SEC, policeman of the American Stock Exchange, announced for its part a hardening of requests for information from Chinese groups listed on Wall Street.

Chinese internet giants Tencent and Baidu lost 1.27% and 1.83%.

The Robinhood online brokerage app, which fell sharply for its first day on Wall Street on Thursday, ended up 0.95% to $ 35.15 after it was introduced at $ 38.

The title of the social network Pinterest tumbled 18.24% after announcing a decline in its monthly users.

With bonds being sought after for their safe haven, just like the rising dollar, yields on ten-year US debt fell to 1.2273% from 1.2693% on Thursday.

© 2021 AFP