New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange traded lower on Friday for the last session of the month, as technology stocks were dragged down by Amazon's disappointing sales outlook.

Around 2:30 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones gave up 0.28%, the Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, fell by 0.56% and the extended S&P 500 index by 0.43%.

The day before, the Dow Jones had finished at 35,084.53 points (+ 0.44%), the Nasdaq at 14,778.26 points (+ 0.11%) and the S&P 500 at 4,419.15 points (+ 0.42% ), thanks to good quarterly results.

Amazon's stock fell 7.48% to $ 3,331 as the internet giant announced disappointing sales the day before after the market closed.

"Amazon has declined and this drives the rest down," noted Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities while among technology stocks Apple dropped 0.50%, Google 0.88% and Microsoft 0.60%.

The e-commerce leader's quarterly revenue was $ 2 billion lower than expected, to $ 113.1 billion, despite a 27% increase.

In addition, Amazon has been fined 746 million euros in Luxembourg for non-compliance with the new European regulations on the protection of the private data of Internet users (GDPR).

After a favorable July for the stock market, which reached new records, "investors were pulling some money off the table" for the last session of the month, noted Cardillo of profit taking.

Investors were also concerned "by the uncertainties surrounding the Delta variant and the procedures in China," said Schwab analysts.

The SEC, policeman of the American stock market, announced Friday a toughening of requests for information from Chinese groups listed on Wall Street.

The move comes as a series of Chinese companies listed on Wall Street have been subject to restrictions and investigations by Chinese authorities since early July, which has plunged stocks and created volatility.

On the macroeconomic level, 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.

Manufacturing activity in the Chicago area rebounded in July on strong demand.

Consumer confidence, shaken by inflation, nevertheless held up better than expected in July at 81.2 against 80.8 for the first estimate, according to the University of Michigan.

"Inflation remains a wild card for investors. It is still at the strongest rate since 1991," noted the chief analyst of Spartan Capital.

Consumer product groups such as Colgate-Palmolive (-3.34%) or Procter & Gamble (+ 3%) warned, during the presentation of positive results, of the probable continuation of the increase in costs the rest of the l 'year.

Construction machinery giant Caterpillar, considered a good barometer of the health of the global economy, dropped 3.51% despite strong results driven by a boom in demand.

Despite big profits in the second quarter, oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron lost more than 1%, as uncertainties around the Delta variant weigh on the assessment of future demand for black gold.

The Robinhood online brokerage app, which missed its IPO Thursday on Wall Street, was stagnant at $ 34.90, while it was listed at 38.

In the bond market, yields on 10-year Treasuries fell to 1.2273% from 1.2693%.

© 2021 AFP