Wall Street remained virtually unchanged after a banner week with gains of +2 to +2.5%: the Dow Jones posted a limited loss (-0.41% to 39,313), as did the S&P500 (-0.31% to 5,218), the Nasdaq-100 (-0.34% to 18.277) and the Nasdaq Composite (-0.27% to 16,384).

The main US indices had begun the week on very similar downturns, with a few buyers halving losses by mid-session, before heaviness prevailed once again.

A few stocks weighed on the trend, such as Illumina -2.3%, Cadence -2%, Intel -1.7%, Qualcomm, KLA and On-Semiconductor -1.5%, Microsoft -1.4%.

This was not offset by the surge of Micron, which took +6.3%, or the increases of Adobe +1.5%, Tesla +1.1%, Nvidia +0.8% (new closing record at $950, for a capitalization of $2,375 billion). Boeing recovered +1.4% with the confirmation of the departure of the CEO and several top executives: a reaction that can be described as 'moderate'.

The macroeconomic agenda was particularly bare on Monday, apart from the publication of new home sales: they fell imperceptibly, by -0.3% in February compared with the previous month, to 662,000 units at an annualized rate, following a 1.7% rise in January.

The median house price was $400,500, and the average price was $485,000: rising interest rates are still having no impact on prices, which remain close to all-time highs, making real estate unaffordable for 80% of the population.

Even the wealthiest who have no need to borrow (at over 6.80% for the best profiles) can't go bargain-hunting. The stock of new homes for sale stood at 463,000 at the end of February, i.e. a reserve of around 8.4 months at the rate of sales at the time.

On the bond front, the start of the week is marked by consolidation, with T-Bonds up +4 basis points at 4.258%, and a 30-year bond up +3 basis points at 4.422%.

Oil stands out this evening, up more than 1.7% to $82 on the NYMEX, retesting the recent intraday high of $82.5.

Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.