Wall Street largely contained the damage, reducing its initial losses by 50 to 70%: the Nasdaq, which had fallen by -2.3% to 15,345, ended the day down by just -0.65% to 15,610.
The S&P500 dropped -1.6% to 4,990 but closed down by -0.46% to 5,048pts, while the Dow Jones dropped -1% but easily held on to 38,000pts.000Pts.

After the cold shower of US stats, investors seem to have focused on results, with the feeling that some pleasant surprises were in the pipeline with the publication of quarterly results from Alphabet, Microsoft and SNAP.
And the announcements from these 3 companies did indeed shatter the most optimistic expectations.
However, prior to these releases, New York was severely upset by US Q1 GDP, which came in at the opposite end of the consensus: only +1.6% instead of the median estimate of +2.8%, with Goldman Sachs having just raised its forecast to +3.2% (GDP coming in half as high).
But it gets worse, as underlying PCE inflation (excluding food and energy) is estimated to have reached 3.7%, versus the 3.4% expected by analysts.
To this must be added a lower-than-expected 207,000 jobless claims compared with 212,000 the previous week (versus 215,000 expected).

The fall in the bond markets initially weighed on equities, with yields tending symmetrically towards new annual records, as expectations of a September rate cut became a minority.

The 10-year yield jumped +5.5pts to 4.7100%, its highest since the end of November, while the 2-year yield, also +6.5pts, broke through the 5% barrier at 5.002%, with the 30-year up +4pts to 4.822% (after a high of 4.845%).
Concerns about the FED's agenda were swept aside by Alphabet's publications: the stock soared +13% after the close, with earnings per share of $1.89 versus $1.51 (boosted by cloud activity and advertising)...
but what the market is celebrating this evening is the payment of the 1st dividend in history ($0.20) and the announcement of a massive share buyback plan of $70 billion, i.e. almost 8% of the capital ($900 billion).
Microsoft also jumped +5% in the after-hours, with profits ($2.94/share vs. $2.82 expected) boosted by the cloud, with Azure sales up 31%.
However, SNAP was the clear champion of the increase, with +27%, and user numbers peaking at 431 million.
On the other hand, disappointment for Intel, with an 18% drop in profits and EPS expectations of $0.1 in Q2, and sales at the bottom end of the $13.5/14.5 bn range (or $12.5/13.5): the stock fell by -9% in electronic trading.

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