New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange finished higher Thursday, grabbing a few points ahead of the expected release of the monthly US jobs report on Friday.

The Nasdaq index finished on a new record, the 34th since the beginning of the year, at 15,331.17 points, thanks to a gain of 0.14%.

Record also for the broader S&P 500 index, which rose 0.28% to 4,536.95 points, while the Dow Jones rose 0.37% to 35,443.82 points, according to provisional figures.

"We are in a waiting position before the jobs report tomorrow," said Art Hogan, head of strategy at National Securities, noting that the volume of trade will have been quite low.

It is especially the energy sector and industry in general that pushed the indices up Thursday, noted the analyst.

After having had a difficult start to the week, marked by the drop in crude oil prices and the uncertainty about the consequences of Hurricane Ida, ExxonMobil (+ 2.44% to $ 55.08), Chevron (+2.09 % to 97.71 dollars) and ConocoPhillips (+ 3.57% to 56.60 dollars) all rebounded on this session.

On the industry side, Caterpillar (+ 1.84%), Deere tractors (+ 2.19%) or General Electric (+ 2.51%) have also taken on color.

The market is turned towards the publication of the monthly employment report by the US Department of Labor, Friday before market (12:30 GMT).

However, Art Hogan expects only a moderate reaction from the market.

"The bar has been set quite low," he argues.

Analysts expect 725,000 job creations in August, according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency, which would already be more than 200,000 below the July figure (943,000).

"It would take a real failure, 300 or 400,000, to have a negative reaction," he said.

Conversely, a figure above expectations would probably have only a limited impact, according to him, because the American Central Bank (Fed) has already indicated that it could slow down its asset purchases by the end. of the year, postponing a hike in key rates.

In the microeconomics department, the space transport specialist Virgin Galactic suffered Thursday (-2.99% to 25.99 dollars) after the announcement of the US Aviation Agency (FAA) that his spacecraft could not fly in the immediate.

The regulator is awaiting the conclusions of an investigation into an incident that occurred during a theft in July with billionaire and company founder Richard Branson on board.

Apple finished in the green (+ 0.75% to 153.65 dollars), unaffected by the announcement Wednesday of new concessions to certain creators of mobile applications, who will now be able to escape the commission usually charged by the group to Apple.

Spotify (+ 6.57% to 254.03 dollars) and Netflix (+ 1.11% to 588.55 dollars), which already escaped this commission by not offering the possibility of taking a subscription via the application, will now be able to add a link to their websites to subscribe.

Food and feed distributor Chewy fell sharply (-9.29% to $ 79.31), weighed down by lower-than-expected quarterly results, which many blamed on the end of the boom linked to the pandemic.

The American manufacturer of medical equipment Baxter International gained 4.84% to 81.06 dollars after the announcement, before market, of the acquisition of its competitor Hillrom for 10.5 billion dollars.

On the bond market, the rate of US 10-year government bonds fell to 1.28%, against 1.30% the day before.

© 2021 AFP