The New York Stock Exchange ended the week clearly in the red on Friday, with the alarming surge in cases of coronavirus in many US states creating a climate of concern in the equity market.
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Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 2.83% to 25,015.55 points.
The highly technological Nasdaq lost 2.59% to 9757.22 points.
The S&P 500 extended index fell 2.42% to 3009.05 points.
From Monday to Friday, the Dow Jones fell 3.3%, the Nasdaq by 1.9% and the S&P 500 by 2.8%.
Market players have been alarmed by the outbreak of contamination in the south and west of the United States in recent days.
In Texas, the governor has ordered the bars closed and in Florida, the authorities have announced that alcohol consumption will now be banned on the premises in bars, with immediate effect.
These measures cause many observers to fear a slowdown in the American economic recovery when the prospects are already bleak.
“We are approaching the end of the second quarter and it is expected that revenues (from companies listed on the S&P 500, editor’s note) will drop by around 45%,” notes Sam Stovall, head of investment strategy at CFRA Research.
“Each sector is expected to decline from the same period last year with more pronounced declines in the energy, consumer non-essential goods and industrial sectors,” said Stovall.
At the start of the session, the New York market also reacted to announcements from the Federal Reserve Thursday evening, following the bank stress tests conducted by the institution.
The 34 largest banks in the United States will have to suspend their share repurchase programs in the third quarter and limit the payment of dividends to shareholders, the Fed decided.
The titles of JP Morgan Chase (-5.48%), Bank of America (-6.35%), Citigroup (-5.88%), Wells Fargo (-7.42%), Goldman Sachs (-8, 65%) and Morgan Stanley (-3.57%) fell sharply.
Among the indicators, household spending in the United States rebounded 8.2% in May compared to the previous month, a sign that the American economy is slowly recovering from the economic slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the Labor Department.
Inflation, on the other hand, started to rise again in May at + 0.1% when analysts expected it to remain unchanged. In April, consumer prices fell 0.5%.
Consumer confidence in the United States, for its part, improved less sharply than expected in June amid a resurgence of the pandemic, according to the final estimate of the University of Michigan survey.
On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt fell, settling at 0.6397% around 4:25 pm against 0.6856% Thursday evening.
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