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At about 9:50 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones index was down 0.76% at 35,358.83 points. The high-tech NASDAQ was down 0.75% at 14,703.24 points. The S&P 500 extended index was down 0.69% at 4448.62 points.
The day before, after having started badly, the Dow Jones index (+ 0.31%) and the S&P 500 (+ 0.26%) had reached new highs, accumulating five consecutive sessions of increases.
The NASDAQ was still in the red (-0.20%).
Wall Street was already in negative territory before the publication of the retail sales index which turned out worse than expected with a decline of 1.1% against -0.2% expected by analysts. “On the surface it’s disappointing, but in detail it’s better,” assured Ian Shepherdson, economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics, pointing to the revision of the June sales increase at + 0.7%.
In July, it was the plunge in auto sales (-3.9%), which particularly weighed on the index. The analyst stressed that it was “impossible to separate the impact of the fall in stimulus checks from that, possible, of the Delta variant, which began to affect restaurants and air transport at the end of July”.
“The Delta variant is going to hit harder in August, so we’re going to have to drastically lower our forecast for consumer spending for the 3e quarter, ”again warned Ian Shepherdson.
Consumer spending in the United States accounts for three quarters of GDP and is the engine of growth for the world’s largest economy.
Among the good news, industrial production increased more sharply than expected (+ 0.9%) in July.
The title of number one distribution Walmart, which on Tuesday announced net earnings per share a little below expectations for better sales, grabbed + 0.24% to 151 dollars. The rebate giant has raised its forecasts for the whole year.
DIY chain Home Depot lost 4.63% to $ 319, despite better-than-expected results but lower footfall at 2e trimester.
While Beijing made public the broad outlines of its new regulation of the tech sector, the securities of major Chinese internet groups listed in New York plunged such as Alibaba (-3.13%), Tencent (-9%) , Baidu (-3.86%).
Ten-year bond yields, which had fallen to 1.22% before the opening, rose to 1.25% from 1.26% the day before.
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