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On Wall Street, Microsoft, Apple Lead Nasdaq To A Top

The New York Stock Exchange began Monday August as it had completed Friday July, buoyed by the rise of the technology sector and several of its big names, including Microsoft and Apple.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, hit a new record at 10,902.80 points (+ 1.47%).

From the start of the session, US President Donald Trump welcomed this new milestone while predicting a stock market crash should his Democratic rival Joe Biden win the November presidential election.

Wall Street’s flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, ended at 26,664.40 points, up 0.89%.

The S&P 500 extended index gained 0.72% to 3294.61 points.

As has been the case for several weeks, the equity market benefited from the good health of the technology sector. The “Information Technology” sub-sector of the S&P 500 notably gained 2.49%.

Microsoft climbed 5.62%. The computer giant confirmed on Sunday that negotiations to buy the US branch of the social network Tiktok from its Chinese parent company ByteDance were continuing.

Donald Trump, who initially threatened to ban Tiktok in the United States, brought forward the September 15 deadline on Monday to finalize such a takeover.

Apple, which posted sharply higher quarterly revenues last week to nearly $ 60 billion, saw its stock rise 2.52% on Monday.

“Until investors and brokers judge the economy to be on a solid course, they will continue to hang on to the growth, balance sheets and cash flow of big names in tech,” says Quincy Krosby, manager of the market strategy for Prudential Financial.

Investors continued to follow negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in Congress on the new part of the stimulus package for businesses and households hit hard by the consequences of the pandemic.

Discussions have stalled in particular on the additional weekly allowance of $ 600 paid to millions of unemployed Americans since March and which ended on July 31.

Democrats would like to extend it, while Republicans want to lower it to $ 200.

According to Ms. Krosby, the market remains “optimistic that the two parties will succeed in developing a text that will help cushion the downturn” to come in the US economy.

Market players will take notice on Friday of the Department of Labor’s monthly report on employment and the unemployment rate in July.

The US economy created 4.8 million jobs in June, a record high, and the unemployment rate stood at 11.1%.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose to 0.5510% around 4:30 p.m. against 0.5282% on Friday night.

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