New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended in dispersed order on Friday, after a session marked by low volumes and great instability, to close a week choppy by the Evergrande crisis and the Fed meeting.

The Dow Jones closed slightly up 0.10% at 34,798 points, the technology-intensive Nasdaq index lost 0.03% to 15,047.69 points and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.15% to 4,455.48 points.

After opening higher, Wall Street zigzagged around equilibrium throughout the session, marked by very low trading volumes in S&P 500 stocks.

"The correction is behind us and we are now in a stock-picker market," where investors need to pick a few stocks that are likely to outperform the indices, explained Brian Belski, head of strategy at BMO. Capital Markets.

The correction mentioned by the analyst is the stall that occurred on Monday when operators feared that the possible implosion of Chinese real estate developer Evergrande would set the financial markets on fire, or even more.

As of Wednesday, the market was satisfied with a few signals which suggested an orderly resolution of this crisis, with the help of the Chinese authorities.

The VIX index, which measures market volatility, even fell back to a lower level on Friday than at the end of last week.

However, according to several media, Evergrande has not honored a maturity of interest on a bond in dollars, set for Thursday.

In addition, the group, which is weighted with more than 300 billion in debt, has not communicated anything on the subject.

The lack of animation in the markets on Friday was also due to "a lack of news", according to Mr. Belski, with the prospect, next week, of the continuation of negotiations in Congress on the two massive budget plans of President Biden, which weigh almost 5,000 billion dollars to them.

The equity markets have digested the announcements, Wednesday, of the American Central Bank (Fed), which seems ready to slow down the pace of its debt purchases to support the economy and of which half of the members are now considering a first rate hike interest from 2022.

The bond market did not experience this episode as well.

10-year US government bond yields stabilized around 1.45%, significantly higher than Wednesday (1.32%), the day the Fed announced it.

On Wall Street, among the stocks noted, the online commerce giant Alibaba which, depressed by the repeated screwdrivers of the Chinese authorities, touched, in session, its lowest level since January 2019. Its price ended down 4.04% to $ 145.08.

Bad day also for Nike, which slipped (-6.26% to 149.59 dollars), after having lowered, on Thursday, its sales forecasts for the postponed fiscal year 2021-22 (ended at the end of May).

The sports equipment manufacturer is now counting on a 5% growth in sales, against 10 to 15% so far.

A revision due to logistical problems, in particular the temporary closure of factories in Vietnam and Indonesia due to a health crisis.

If it benefited from the publication of a net profit and a turnover above expectations, the supermarket chain Costco (+ 3.31% to 467.75 dollars) also helped calm the enthusiasm of the market due to supply difficulties and inflationary pressures, a refrain already heard many times elsewhere.

The Meredith media group, which publishes People magazine in particular, soared (+ 25.42% to 56.30 dollars) thanks to an article in the Wall Street Journal, reporting advanced discussions with InterActive Corp (+4, 98% to 140.37 dollars).

The latter, who already controls the site The Daily Beast, would value Meredith 2.5 billion dollars, according to the daily.

© 2021 AFP