New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher on Wednesday, somewhat reassured about the situation of Chinese promoter Evergrande and shared on the contrasting message from the American Central Bank (Fed).

The Dow Jones finished up 1% to 34,258.32 points, while the Nasdaq index, with a strong technological representation, gained 1.02% to 14,896.84 points and the broader S&P 500 index, 0.95%. at 4,395.64 points.

Wall Street had started the day up, rather optimistic after the announcement that Evergrande, on the verge of default, was going to honor a debt deadline set for Thursday, even if the fate of a second maturity, the same day, remains uncertain.

Operators then turned to the Fed, which announced that the reduction in its purchases of financial securities could begin "soon", without committing to a firm timetable, thus postponing its meeting in November.

This speech had been widely anticipated by the market.

On the other hand, the indication that half of the members of the Fed were now expecting a first rate hike in 2022 was surprising.

"The reaction of the markets was quite moderate, as investors took into account this mixed message", between pursuit of an accommodating policy in the short term and possible anticipated tightening, commented Cliff Hodge, head of investment for the company Cornerstone Health Management.

Another manifestation of this moderation, the rate of US government bonds was almost identical to the previous day, at 1.31% (against 1.32%).

"The market was up before (the announcement of) the Fed's decision and simply stayed in the green," responded Art Hogan, head of strategy at National Securities.

For him, the rise of the indices Wednesday is mainly due to the situation of Evergrande.

"It looks like we've gotten used to the idea that Evergrande is not going to be the start of a financial crisis," commented the analyst.

"We have regained some calm."

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at his press conference on Wednesday that the United States was "not really directly exposed" to the difficulties of the Chinese promoter, who has accumulated more than $ 300 billion in debts.

Among the most noticed values ​​Wednesday on Wall Street, Facebook took a shine (3.99% to 343.21 dollars) after confirming the negative effect of the iPhone update on its advertising revenue.

The update of the iOS operating system, used on Apple media, now allows users to refuse the collection of certain data concerning them, which limits Facebook's tools for measuring the effectiveness of a campaign advertising.

Another title abused Wednesday, the group of mail and parcel delivery FedEx was sanctioned (-9.12% to 229.08 dollars) after the publication, Tuesday after market close, of a quarterly net profit lower than expectations.

FedEx attributed this disappointment, in part, to higher personnel costs, linked to its inability to meet its manpower needs which forced it to pay more overtime.

The group has also revised downwards its profit forecasts for the whole of its postponed fiscal year 2021/22 (from June to May).

Its competitor UPS was dragged into the turmoil and dropped 2.33% to $ 185.30.

Supported by the good performance of the price of black gold, the oil sector was in the spotlight.

ExxonMobil took 2.93%, ConocoPhillips, 4.94%, and Chevron, 2.94%.

As for restaurant software specialist Toast, it got off to a flying start on Wall Street on Wednesday, rising 56.27% for its first trading session on the New York Stock Exchange.

This company created barely ten years ago, a new example of the development of computerization and technology in the restaurant business, is now worth more than $ 30 billion on the stock market.

© 2021 AFP