New York (AFP)

The Dow Jones, which hit a record in session, ended up 0.43% to 35,609.34 points, less than 20 points from its highest mark at the close, according to a final result.

As for the broader S&P 500 index, it finished its race within one point of its best score, at 4,536.19 points, up 0.37%.

The Nasdaq, which remained on five consecutive sessions up, fell 0.05% to 15,121.67 points.

"October is the opposite of September," commented Jack Ablin, investment manager at management company Cresset Capital.

"Because we realize that the economy is strong," he explained.

"As for interest rates, they are going up," which is what the equity markets generally fear, "but they are still well below the level at which they should be".

In addition, after getting carried away by the idea of ​​an anticipated monetary tightening, operators no longer count with the same ardor on a hike in short-term rates.

The two-year US government bond rate fell sharply to 1.37% against 1.44% on Monday.

The 10-year yield stabilized at 1.64% against 1.63% on Tuesday.

Looking at the first company publications over the past ten days, investors are satisfied with the way they are compensating for inflationary pressure and supply problems.

"We have not yet heard from the retail sector," potentially the most affected by these two factors, warned Jack Ablin, "but what we have seen so far is very encouraging."

In its Beige Book, survey published Wednesday, the American Central Bank (Fed) noted that despite inflation many companies reported a "greater propensity to relay cost increases" to consumers.

"We believe stocks can move up further in this bull market, (...) because there are a lot of companies that have the wiggle room to raise their prices," said Chris Zaccarelli, Independent Advisor Alliance.

Pinterest searched by Paypal

On the side, the action of Pinterest, which combines social network and photo sharing, soared Wednesday after the agency Bloomberg reported discussions on its possible takeover by the online payment service provider PayPal .

The title took up 18% during the session, causing a brief suspension of listing, before ending up 12.77% to 62.68 dollars.

PayPal dropped 4.91% to $ 258.36.

According to Bloomberg, the two groups would have mentioned an acquisition price of 70 dollars per share, which would value Pinterest about 44 billion dollars, taking into account the total of the securities in circulation.

Netflix fell (-2.17% to 625.14 dollars) despite results exceeding expectations and a net gain of subscribers (4.4 million) significantly higher than expected by analysts.

The market has noted the prudence of the forecast for net earnings per share given by the group for the fourth quarter, quite significantly lower than expected (80 cents against 1.12 dollars).

In the aftermath of the Wall Street listing of the first bitcoin-linked index fund (ETF) on Wall Street, the cryptocurrency universe continued to benefit from what is considered by many to be a milestone in the popularization of virtual currencies.

The title of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase gained 2.97% to $ 314.71, while the notorious fund that arrived on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday recorded some $ 1.27 billion in trades on Wednesday.

Bitcoin broke its record of $ 64,870, reached in April, even approaching $ 67,000 (66,976) before falling back.

Novavax slipped (-14.76% to 136.86 dollars) after the publication of an article on the Politico site claiming that the difficulties facing the American laboratory to develop its own vaccine against the coronavirus are greater than reported until here.

Also according to the article, Novavax is unable, for the moment, to meet the conditions for mass production of the vaccine.

The laboratory reacted in a statement, saying it was confident in its industrial capacity and in respecting its schedule.

© 2021 AFP