New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange started August in green on Monday, after a week of decline but a solid July despite the spread of the Delta variant.

At 2:10 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones index rose 0.59% to 35,141.11 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, advanced 0.35% to 14,723.90 points.

The broader S&P 500 index gained 0.45% to 4,415.16 points.

Friday, the three indices had retreated, weighed down by a decline in Amazon.

The Dow Jones lost 0.42%, the Nasdaq 0.71% and the S&P 500 0.54%.

Stocks started rising "for the first session of the month. This is not a surprising position," noted Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

“There is often new money coming into the market on the first day of the month, with a bullish bias. Not to mention that there is a lot of liquidity available to the market,” added the expert. .

Schwab analysts also pointed to the contagion of optimism from foreign stock markets which started off on a good Monday "easing recent uncertainty around the implications of the Delta variant on the economy and businesses".

Investors were keeping tabs on progress in Congress on Joe Biden's plan for infrastructure renovations.

Potentially, some $ 1,000 billion over five years devoted to roads, railways, broadband networks and water treatment.

This infrastructure bill "would provide the largest injection of federal spending on public works in decades," said Art Hogan of National Securities.

Still the subject of complex negotiations between the two parties, the law should "pass in the days to come", assured the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.

Few business results were expected on Monday.

The ISM manufacturing activity index for July showed that the supply disruptions are weighing on the industry.

Growth in the sector slowed in July to 59.5 from 60.6, as analysts expected a slightly higher pace.

In terms of shares, the title of the group of electronic payments Square jumped 8.77% to 268 dollars after the surprise announcement Sunday of the takeover of Afterpay, a specialist in payment on credit after delivery, for 29 billion dollars.

For Square, led by the boss of Twitter, the merger with the Australian start-up which is adopted by 16 million users in several countries "is a chance to capitalize on the changes underway in the traditional credit world, and to target young people in particular, ”pointed out Art Hogan.

Amazon, which had weighed down the Nasdaq on Friday by losing 7.56% because of sales and disappointing prospects, stabilized at 3,334.53 dollars (+ 0.24%).

The stock of electric car maker Tesla, which last week said it broke the $ 1 billion mark in quarterly profit for the first time, climbed sharply (+ $ 4.90) to $ 721.

Ten-year bond yields were down to 1.2039% from 1.2223% on Friday.

© 2021 AFP