Around 3:45 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones lost 0.62%, the Nasdaq index dropped 1.18% and the broader S&P 500 index fell by 0.83%.

The indices only reacted marginally to the publication of retail sales in the United States in July, which were stable compared to June, while economists were expecting a slight increase (+0.1%).

The core index, excluding autos and fuel, came in at 0.8%, better than expected.

"This is new information that confirms what we already knew that the U.S. economy is not in recession" and that "consumers are resisting persistent inflation," Cliff said in a note. Hodge of Cornerstone Wealth.

"It's positive, but I think the market is mainly looking ahead", with the publication, at 6:00 p.m. GMT, of the minutes of the last meeting of the American central bank (Fed), tempered Peter Cardillo, of Spartan Capital .

"After four or five sessions of significant gains, (...) we have some profit taking and caution," he added.

This slight resurgence of tension was also felt on the bond market.

The yield on ten-year US government bonds rose above 2.90% for the first time in a month.

The recent figures which demonstrated the vigor of American consumers, who were said to be moribund, have contributed to changing the expectations of operators in terms of monetary policy.

After betting for a time on a half-point increase in the Fed's key rate at the next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee in late September, the market is expecting a further hike of 0.75 percentage points. , which would be the third in a row.

In this context, the technology sector, which has fueled much of the rebound recorded since June, was at half mast, from Amazon (-1.83%) to Nvidia (-2.10%), via PayPal. (-2.34%).

For Patrick O'Hare, of Briefing.com, the decline in the indices on Wednesday is also due to the fact that they stumbled on Tuesday on important technical thresholds, on the rise.

The S&P 500, in particular, nearly broke above its average for the last 200 trading days (up nearly 19% from its June low), a major level for investors, before falling back.

On the rating, the Target supermarket chain was sanctioned (-2.26% to 176.12 dollars) for its profit significantly below expectations, eaten (-89%) by the discounts granted to customers to reduce its stocks as well as the skyrocketing transport costs.

The DIY brand Lowe's (+ 1.29% to 216.89 dollars) has navigated better in these turbulent waters, despite a slight decline in its turnover (-0.3% over one year), and maintained its margin rate, to the satisfaction of the market, with a net profit above expectations.

The action of the English professional football club Manchester United (+ 3.44% to 13.22 dollars), listed in New York, benefited from the attention aroused by a tweet from Elon Musk, later described as a “joke” by its author, announcing that he was buying the team.

Consecrated "same stock", that is to say the darling of some small holders, unrelated to the fundamentals of the group, the chain of home goods stores Bed, Bath & Beyond continued to climb (+26 .68% to $26.16).

Its price has almost tripled in one week.

© 2022 AFP