“New York Stock Exchange Posts Best Month Since January with Positive Tech Results Ahead of Fed Meeting”

The New York Stock Exchange ended Friday slightly in the green a week rich in technology results and macro-economic news before a meeting of the Fed next week.

The Dow Jones index gained 0.80% to 34,098.16 points and the S&P 500 0.83% to 4,169.48 points while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.69% to 12,226.58 points.

The index of star stocks thus posted its best month since January (+2.5%).

Undecided at the start of the session, the indices finally opted for green during this last trading day of April, despite a negative reaction to the results of the Amazon megacap (-3.98%). The decline in its cloud (remote computing) revenue has chilled traders.

This did not prevent the Nasdaq from concluding in the positive for the third consecutive session and gaining 1.5% over the week, thanks to the good quarterly results of Meta (+0.74%), Microsoft (+0.80 %), Alphabet (-0.14%).

Intel soared 4.02% despite another quarterly loss, although less worse than expected.

“Overall results have impressed this week, with the technology sector leading the charge,” said Edward Moya, analyst for Oanda.

For Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com, “it was a bit of a respite session with decent macro data.”

The Fed next week

On this front, and ahead of a crucial meeting of the US central bank next week, inflation, as measured by the PCE index favored by the Fed, has provided mixed indications.

Admittedly, it slowed to 4.2% over one year in March against 5.1% the month before, which is good news.

But core inflation (excluding energy and food) continued to rise over the month (+0.3% as in February) and only slowed by a tenth of a point over one year to 4.6% against 4, 7%.

“These data have locked in expectations of a further Fed rate hike” at the May 2-3 meeting, Edward Moya concluded.

Banking nervousness played again. As a result, troubled bank First Republic’s stock plunged another 43% to $3.51 and its listing was suspended several times.

For Edward Moya, “it seems that hopes of a bank merger or a white knight are quickly fading”.

Concomitantly, regulators such as the Fed and the FDIC published their reports on the bankruptcy of the SVB bank on Friday, acknowledging shortcomings in the effectiveness of their supervision.

Elsewhere on the stock exchange, Snap – parent company of the social network Snapchat – collapsed 17.05% to 8.71 dollars after publishing disappointing sales in the first quarter, despite an increase in the number of daily users.

Exxon-Mobil gained 1.29% as the US oil and gas giant said it had doubled profits in the first quarter despite lower oil prices compared to the same period in 2022.

Rival Chevron rose 0.98% after its net profit rose on strong refining margins, but its overall quarterly revenue fell.

Ten-year bond rates eased a little to 3.42% versus 3.52% the day before.

If most Western markets close on Monday for May Day, Wall Street will be open.

1. Nasdaq