The Dow Jones concludes with a record but tech has folded - France 24

New York (AFP)

According to final results, the Dow Jones index advanced 0.21% allowing it to return to a record for the first time since mid-August at 35,677.02 points.

The Nasdaq, with high technological concentration, dropped 0.82% to 15,090.20 points.

The S&P 500 is down a bit from its peak yesterday at 4,544.90 points (-0.11%).

"The disappointing forecasts of big names in tech weighed on investor morale," analysts at Wells Fargo summed up.

Investors also digested the remarks of the President of the American Central Bank (Fed) Jerome Powell during a virtual conference where he reaffirmed that the time for reducing asset purchases was "near".

This gradual withdrawal of liquidity injections into the financial system, which has greatly benefited Wall Street, should be concluded in the middle of next year, the Fed boss reiterated.

Seven of the eleven sectors of the S&P 500 remained in the green, starting with bank stocks (+ 1.33%), which welcome a future tightening of credit conditions.

The energy sector ended up (+ 0.90%) in the wake of the continued increase in oil prices.

Lagging behind, however, the communication services sector fell sharply (-2.28%), weighed down by big names like Intel and Snap as well as to a lesser extent, like Facebook and Twitter.

U.S. semiconductor giant Intel (-11.68% to $ 49.46) disappointed investors on Thursday after the close by posting below-expected sales, as shortage of electronic components continues to plague the group computer science.

If its net profit climbed in one year to 6.8 billion dollars, and its turnover increased by 5% to 19.2 billion, its main activity, that of processors for computers, saw its income decrease. by 2% in one year, to $ 9.7 billion.

Snap, parent company of the social network Snapchat, also weighed down the Nasdaq as the title fell 26.60% to 55.13 dollars.

The social network, which posted disappointing revenue, said changes to privacy settings on Apple's operating system for iPhones had affected its advertising revenue.

This also led to a decline in the titles of other major social networks like Facebook (-5.05% to 324.61 dollars) and Twitter (-4.91% to 62.19 dollars).

Google (Alphabet, 2.91% 0 was also impacted.

Weekly increase

Despite this downturn in the tech sector, the three main indices ended their third straight week on the rise.

The Dow Jones posted a weekly advance of 1.08%, the Nasdaq of 1.29% and the S&P 500 of 1.65%.

A so far largely positive corporate earnings season for the third quarter has encouraged investors, Schwab analysts noted.

Next week, the markets will face a deluge of results: from Facebook on Monday to Amazon on Thursday, including UPS, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Coca Cola and Boeing in particular.

In addition, a first estimate of US GDP growth in the third quarter is expected Thursday and inflation for September (PCE index, the Fed's favorite barometer) will be watched on Friday.

Among the events of the week, the specialist in shared offices WeWork, IPO Thursday successfully, climbed again 10.53% to 13.02 dollars Friday.

Finally, a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) intended to merge with the future social network that former President Donald Trump wants to create has skyrocketed.

The action of Digital World Acquisition Corp, suspended several times for volatility on the Nasdaq, soared 107.03% to 94.20 dollars.

In the bond market, rates on ten-year Treasury bills fell to 1.64% from 1.70% the day before.

© 2021 AFP