USA: On Wall Street increases, S&P 500 is the highest since August 2022

Friday’s session on the US stock markets ended with slight increases in the main indices. The S&P 500 is at its highest level since early August 2022. Investors await key central bank decisions next week – the Fed on Wednesday and the ECB on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.13%. and amounted to 33,876.78 points.

The S&P 500 ended the day up 0.11%. and amounted to 4,298.86 points. The index gained for the fourth week in a row.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.16%. and closed the session at 13,259.14 points. This is the seventh consecutive week of gains for this index, which is the longest such series since November 2019.

Market futures indicate a 50% the probability that the US Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged at its meeting this month. In turn, in July they point to 50 percent. chance of an interest rate hike in Usa.

“We think the outcome of the vote at the June FOMC meeting will be very even. The risk is that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell may fail to calm the hawks, which could result in rate hikes in both June and July. We expect the Fed to raise interest rates for the last time in this cycle. in July. We believe that by September, the weakening data on economic activity and employment will lead to a more permanent pause, with the Fed keeping its key rate at 5.5%. until the first interest rate cut in March 2024.” – BNP Paribas economists indicated in the report.

“Our view is that the Fed will want to take a pause. However, we expect the Fed to leave the door open to another rate hike. in July. The ECB is in a slightly different position because we do not believe that rates in the eurozone are already tight enough. We expect a rate hike in June followed by another in July to end the current rate hike cycle.” said Mohit Kumar, strategist at Jefferies.

“It is not clear if we are dealing with recession-related investor positions that could potentially hit markets like in August 2022 when we had the S&P 500 last move towards 4,300 points, or if it is a rally that is sustainable,” said Jason Hunter, head of technical strategy at JPMorgan.

Tesla shares rose 4%. after General Motors said it would adopt the North American Tesla charging plug standard and provide GM electric vehicle buyers with access to the Tesla Supercharger network. GM shares are up 4.5 percent.

Target fell more than 3 after Citi downgraded the retailer’s stock to “neutral” from “buy.”

DocuSign shares fell 2.5 percent. after the e-contracts firm beat analyst expectations for first-quarter results.

In the oil market, July WTI futures are trading at $70.31 a barrel, down 1.37%, while August Brent futures are down 1.38%. up to $74.91/b. (PAP Business)

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