New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange started in scattered order Tuesday after a long Labor Day weekend, with the Nasdaq moving slightly above its records.

Around 13:50 GMT, the Dow Jones index lost 0.60%, the Nasdaq advanced 0.06% while the S&P 500 dropped 0.16%.

Friday, Wall Street had finished on a mixed note after disappointing employment figures in the United States.

The Dow Jones had closed down 0.21% at 35,369.09 points, the extended S&P 500 index almost at break-even (-0.03% to 4,535.43 points) and the Nasdaq on a new record, in increase of 0.21% to 15,363.51 points.

The markets were closed Monday due to the Labor Day holiday.

"We can forgive the lack of enthusiasm on the stock market after a long weekend, especially when there is a lot of talk about a possible long-awaited market decline," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.

Little business news was on the agenda Tuesday, with investor attention focusing on the expiration of exceptional unemployment benefits granted to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, the analyst noted.

"The markets come out of a mixed performance last week which culminated with the official report on US employment which turned out to be much weaker than expected," said Schwab analysts.

The labor market markedly slowed down in August in the United States, the Delta variant having significantly slowed job creation.

The economy created just 235,000 jobs last month, three times fewer than expected even though the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point to 5.2%.

The markets were also watching this week's monetary meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday, which could signal an upcoming reduction in asset purchases.

This prospect pushed 10-year Treasury yields up to 1.36% from 1.32% at the previous close.

To this were added the echoes of the debate on the succession of Jerome Powell at the head of the American Federal Reserve (Fed).

President Joe Biden is soon to decide whether to re-elect Mr. Powell, a Republican, whose term ends in early February.

Several elected in the Democratic ranks plead for him to be replaced.

Heavyweight of the Dow Jones, Boeing lost 1.60% to 214 dollars after the Irish low-cost company Ryanair announced Sunday to cease its negotiations with the aircraft manufacturer for the order of 737 MAX for questions of price.

State Street bank dropped 2% to $ 91 after announcing the takeover of the investment arm of Brown Brothers Harriman bank for $ 3.5 billion.

The American graphics card maker Nvidia lost 0.59% to 227 dollars, while, according to the Financial Times, the European Commission would not look favorably on its takeover of the British microprocessor specialist Arm.

© 2021 AFP