According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index nibbling 0.26% to 33,061.50 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which collapsed 4% on Friday, gained 1.63% to 12,536.02 points.

The S&P 500 gained 0.57% to 4,155.38 points.

“US stocks ended up” after a month of April in decline “amplified by the massive sale on Friday”, noted analysts at Schwab.

"However, gains are fragile as markets await the Fed's decision this week, which is expected to be aggressive on rates," they added.

In a feverish market, investors positioned themselves ahead of the Fed's decision on Wednesday, awaiting new signals on the pace of rate tightening.

US 10-year bond yields rose to briefly touch the 3% threshold at midday for the first time since the end of 2018 in anticipation of this monetary tightening.

Around 8:30 p.m. GMT, they were at 2.98% against 2.93% on Friday.

According to CME Group futures calculations, 99% of investors expect Fed policy rates to rise by half a percentage point (0.50%) to set them at between 0.75% and 1 %.

It would be the first time in more than 20 years that the Federal Reserve would operate a tightening of this magnitude.

Faced with these expectations, traders sell Treasury bonds to protect themselves from inflation and rising rates, which eat into their value.

As bond prices fall, their yields rise.

These conditions also pushed the dollar up to nearly 20-year highs against major currencies.

"We were used to a world of very low interest rates but we are facing a new inflation paradigm and we have to reacclimatize ourselves to what a world of higher rates looks like," said Mazen Issa of TD Securities.

According to him, the equity market "is also going through a transition cycle with the prospect of higher rates".

"No more free money! It changes a lot of things, causes distortions," he summed up.

On the side, several big names in tech have restored the image of the Nasdaq such as Microsoft (+ 2.50% to 284.47 dollars), Facebook (Meta, + 5.32% to 211.13 dollars) or Google (Alphabet +1.91% to 2,343.14 dollars).

Amazon stopped the bleeding of the last session, grabbing 0.18% to 2,490 dollars.

Spirit Airlines took a 9.36% dive to 21.40 dollars after announcing that it had rejected the takeover offer from its rival JetBlue (+ 2.63%), doubting that it would get the green light from the competition authorities. and indicating that it still preferred to merge with Frontier (-3.77%).

The Activision Blizzard video game group saw its title climb 3.25% to 78.06 dollars.

Warren Buffet's investment holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, said it had increased its stake in the video game publisher, about to be acquired by Microsoft, to 9.5%.

Shares of COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna jumped 5.71% to $142.08 after an official said its vaccine for children under six would be ready to be assessed for approval by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA) in June.

© 2022 AFP