The New York Stock Exchange was down early in the session, falling after a week that saw major stock indices hit records after the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States. At around 3:05 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average index lost 0.52% to 31,015.33 points. The high-tech Nasdaq was down 0.01% at 13,529.83 points and the S&P 500 extended index was down 0.25% at 3,843.35 points.
The Dow Jones hit its high at the close on Wednesday and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit new highs yesterday.
“It’s been another record-breaking week on Wall Street and it now looks like investors are catching their breath after a big hike.”, explains JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade.
“If a profit-taking can partly justify the decline this morning, it also seems that investors and brokers are worried about overvalued prices observed on the stock market,” adds the expert. “They slack off a bit if there are snags in vaccine rollouts or if (Joe) Biden’s stimulus is watered down.”
Market players were also watching with apprehension the situation across the Atlantic, where several countries are considering new restrictions to fight the pandemic, which has caused the European stock markets to retreat.
Among the values of the day, IBM plunged 10.62%. The IT giant last night posted disappointing revenues for the last quarter of 2020 amid uncertainty, which is discouraging many customers from signing long-term agreements to purchase software.
Intel was down 7.33%. The manufacturer of technological chips, which announced Thursday evening of a record turnover in 2020, assured not to want to change its economic strategy, auguring of potential tensions in 2021 with the financial activist Dan Loeb, who calls for a split of the group.
The earnings season will continue next week on Wall Street, where Apple and Facebook will notably publish their quarterly health check.
Cruise line Carnival was down 2.27% after announcing the cancellation of its trips from the United States until the end of April and its Australian operations until May 19. European routes have also been canceled.
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