(New York) The New York Stock Exchange opened slightly higher on Thursday, helped by a higher-than-expected unemployment figure and a lull in bond yields, but investors remain on hold ahead of the monthly jobs report , expected on Friday.
Around 9:55 am (Eastern time), the Dow Jones gained 0.42%, the NASDAQ index gained 0.57% and the broader S&P 500 index, 0.47%.
Headed lower before the open, the market turned after the publication of weekly jobless claims at 211,000 the highest since December.
“Wall Street hopes to see a labor market that calms down a little faster,” commented Edward Moya of Oanda in a note, which could prompt the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to slow down, or even halt, its monetary tightening cycle.
The New York market also capitalized on the lull in the bond market, incandescent since the beginning of the week.
The yield on 2-year government bonds, which is very popular at the moment because it is more relevant than the 10-year rate for gauging expectations in terms of monetary policy, eased to 4.98%, against 5.07% the day before. in closing. On Wednesday, it had risen to 5.08%, its highest level in more than 15 years.
Despite this ray of sunshine, “we will probably not see major positions taken (by investors) before the employment report on Friday,” warned Edward Moya.
On Wednesday, the ADP/Stanford Lab monthly survey revealed 242,000 job creations in February, more than expected.
“Until the market and the Fed have determined a trajectory that brings inflation back to 2%, we can expect the battle to continue between traders betting on a rise and those betting on a drop” in the stock market, with an oscillation around equilibrium, within tight margins, explained Adam Sarhan, of 50 Park Investments.
“I would not be surprised to see a prolonged period of hesitation” as to the direction to take the indices, “until the market has conviction on what is happening” at the macroeconomic level in the United States, has continued the manager.
On the stock market, General Electric advanced (+7.42%) after confirming its forecasts for the 2023 financial year. The conglomerate also reaffirmed that it intended to IPO in early 2024, GE Vernova, combining its assets in the sector Energy.
SVB Financial Group, parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, privileged partner of many technology companies, tumbled (-35.36%) after announcing Wednesday a capital increase of 2.25 billion dollars, to strengthen its balance sheet. The group revised downwards its updated forecast for the first quarter, in particular due to a slowdown in the technology sector.
Still in the banking department, Silvergate Capital (-37.87%), parent company of Silvergate Bank, which has developed a large clientele in the cryptocurrency community, continued its inexorable fall, after indicating on Wednesday that it planned to put into liquidation soon.
Uber was wanted (+0.63%), based on information from the Bloomberg agency that the platform plans to split its freight business from the rest of the group.
The online sales platform Etsy fell (-3.81%) after a lowering of the recommendation by analysts at Jefferies, who set a new price target more than 25% lower than the closing price on Wednesday, warning in particular of a high user churn.
Another online commerce site, the Chinese JD.com (-6.79%) was also penalized after quarterly results slightly lower than analysts’ figures, on average, which indicate a marked deceleration in its growth.
