PARIS, March 16 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Wednesday, buoyed by signs of progress in talks between Ukraine and Russia, as investors await announcements from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed ).
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 396.17 points, or 1.18%, to 33,940.51 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 1.21% to 4,314.09.
The Nasdaq Composite takes 1.51%, or 194.98 points, to 13,143.60.
Even if fighting continues in Ukraine, Russia on Wednesday signaled the possibility of quickly reaching compromises on certain points of the negotiations between the two countries, and the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelensky, judged that the talks between Moscow and Kyiv seemed to take a more realistic turn.
The CBOE volatility index fell 3% to 28.8 points, the lowest since February 28.
On the macroeconomic side, the US Federal Reserve is due to announce its monetary policy decisions at 6:00 p.m. GMT after a two-day meeting.
Faced with inflation at a 40-year peak, the markets anticipate a rate hike of at least 25 basis points which would mark the first stage of a new cycle of raising the cost of credit.
This outlook supports US banks JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, which advance 1.6% to 2%, as the yield on US five-year bonds hit a record high. since May 2019 at 2.149%.
The index of the banking sector and that of finance take respectively 2% and 1.6%.
Technology stocks, which have fallen sharply since the start of the year, are also rising despite expectations of monetary tightening. Tesla gains 0.7% and the S&P index of high technologies advances by 1.22%.
Chinese internet groups listed on Wall Street such as Baidu, Alibaba and Didi Global climbed from 15% to almost 40%, supported by Beijing’s announcement to preserve the stability of capital markets.
After two consecutive days of sharp decline in oil prices, Chevron (+1%) and Exxon Mobil (+0.9%) are benefiting from the rebound in Brent (+0.85% to 100.72 dollars per barrel) and light crude American (WTI) (+1.4% to 97.78 dollars per barrel).
Regarding the only indicator of the day, retail sales in the United States rose less than expected in February with an increase of 0.3% after a gain of 4.9% in January.
–
