:format(jpg):watermark(cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ipmgroup/EF665FJJCNGHFFHRRMWR57UKMI.png,0,30,0)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ipmgroup/D5SM3WWL4BCAHIFXZITOMOWAUA.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "New York Stock Exchange opens undecided, looking for direction ahead of Christmas")
The New York Stock Exchange tried Wednesday to confirm the rebound started the day before, without conviction however with the approach of Christmas and in the absence of important economic news.
At around 3:15 PM GMT, the Dow Jones was up 0.13% at 35,538.87 points, the high-tech Nasdaq was nibbling 0.04% at 15,347.28 points, and the S&P 500 was up 0.15 % at 4,656.40 points.
For Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com, investors are “in a waiting position”. “Will the market continue to rebound or will it run out of steam?”, asked the analyst, in a note.
Wall Street, like other stock markets, continues to closely follow the Omicron wave, named after the latest variant of the coronavirus. “Its final impact on the economy is still uncertain”, recognizes Patrick O’Hare, “but it is becoming apparent that it will affect growth in the fourth quarter and possibly the first quarter” 2022.
For Karl Haeling of the LBBW bank, the Omicron effect “is more of a factor in our personal lives than for the market in general, because it seems that there is no appetite for more restrictions and of confinements “. The United States and United Kingdom have thus removed new restrictions for the time being.
“There will be disruptions, (…) but as long as there is no containment or closures, the economy and the markets should do well”, argues the analyst, for whom the adjustment that Wall Street has known for about a month is probably coming to an end. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see the equity markets rise during the last days of the year.”
Omicron aside, traders had little economic news to hold onto to chart a trend.
On the macroeconomic side, a few secondary indicators were on the agenda, in particular the third estimate of US GDP growth for the third quarter, which stood at 2.3% on an annualized basis, better than the first two estimates (2, 2% then 2.1%).
Another indicator, US consumer confidence improved more than expected in December, as concerns about inflation eased despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, according to the Conference Board index released on Wednesday.
The index rose to 115.8 points against 111.9 points in November which was revised up. This is better than expected by analysts who expected 111.5 points.
Quotes
At the rating, Alibaba was taking the water (-3.98% to 118.09 dollars), while the Chinese authorities on Wednesday suspended a partnership with the remote computing subsidiary (cloud) of the conglomerate, according to related media of the government. The group is being sanctioned for its supposed mismanagement of the flaw linked to a computer code module called Log4j, which has placed a large number of companies and governments in a situation of vulnerability to a cyber attack.
Not a day without Tesla news. In an interview with satirical site Babylon Bee, co-founder and CEO Elon Musk said he had “roughly” sold 10% of his Tesla titles in recent months, as he had announced publicly.
It seems to signal the end of this wave of cession which amounts, to date, to approximately 14 billion dollars, of which still a little more than 500 million Tuesday.
Leaked in recent weeks, the action recovered Wednesday at the opening, taking 4.76% to 983.22 dollars. The chain of used car dealers CarMax fell (-3.50% to 132.20 dollars), although having published, before market, a turnover and a net profit above expectations.
For the third session in a row, the Moderna laboratory was struggling (-4.56%), as was its competitor Novavax (-2.28%). Against all expectations, cruise lines continued their ascent, despite the meteoric spread of the Omicron variant, such as Carnival (+ 1.85%), Royal Caribbean (+ 2.21%) or Norwegian (+ 1.6%) .
Several leaders of the sector have, in recent days, made resolutely optimistic statements on the trajectory of the sector. On Monday, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said the group plans to return to profitability in the second half of 2022. He also announced that Carnival had started to generate net cash again in November.
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