Wall Street is starting the week on a slightly heavy note, but spreads have remained completely fixed almost from start to finish: US indices are catching their breath after Friday's record highs and an 18th week of gains.

These losses remain marginal, with the S&P500 -0.15%, the Dow Jones -0.25%, the Nasdaq -0.4%... and the downturn was largely held in check once again by the semiconductor sector: the SOXX (+1%) smashed a new all-time record at $694 (and $687 at close) and the 'Vaneck Semi.C' gained +1.6% in the wake of Intel +4.1%, Marvell and Qualcomm +2.2%, AMD +1.3%... and inevitably Nvidia +3.6% (new all-time record at $852) with $45 billion traded.

The Nasdaq-100 was weighed down by Apple -2.5%, Alphabet -2.8%, and above all Tesla (-7.2%) or Workday (-6.5%).

The energy sector weighed down the S&P500 with Enphase Energy -4.4%, Diamondback -3.4%, Chevron -2.6%, Conoco -2%.
The day's star performer was the financials sector, with Morgan Stanley +4.1%, PNC +4%, Fifth Third +3.2%, Keycorp +2.8%, FMC +2.6%, Bank of America +2.3%, Goldman +1.1% (Wall Street put its worries about regional banks on hold).

This cautious attitude on the part of US operators is explained by the fact that Jerome Powell is due to speak in 48 hours and that the US employment figures (NFP Friday) are 4 days away: the consensus is for an average of 200.000 job creations in February, following January's fireworks display of 353.000 new jobs, i.e., double the market forecast


T-Bond yields eased +3pts to 4.216%: the nervousness of the US fixed-income markets has been palpable since the end of 2023: the 'pivot' was triggered on December 27, and yields have recovered an average of over 50pts in 9 weeks, all maturities combined.

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