Wall Street ends down despite optimism from Powell and Yellen

published the 24/03/2021

by Herbert Lash

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Wednesday as the S & P-500 failed to stop the previous day’s selling trend, as investors ignored the optimistic comments from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on economic recovery.

L’indice Dow Jones a cd 3,09 points (-0,01%) 32.420,06 points.

The larger S & P-500 lost 21.38 points, or -0.55%, 3,889.14 points.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 265.81 points (-2.01%) to 12,961.89 points.

In line with what they had said the day before in readings of Congress, Jerome Powell and Janet Yellen again expressed Wednesday before a parliamentary committee of their optimism on the economic outlook, the chairman of the Fed saying to expect for 2021 a “very, very solid” year.

The main Wall Street indices have seen relentless movements throughout the week.

Investors turned their backs on big tech stocks for a second consecutive day, as lower bond yields recently helped them rebound, amid swings to the energy and financial sectors amid the prospects for increased growth.

Ten-year US Treasury bills fell to around 1.6% from 1.638% on Tuesday.

“We’re in a kind of lull. We know the economy should really start to pick up in the second quarter. But we haven’t seen that acceleration yet, so we’re waiting,” said David Kelly, Chief strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.

Preliminary data showing that manufacturing activity rose in early March in the United States, driven by growth in new orders, also fueled the current momentum in the markets.

“Everyone is optimistic right now about the prospects for recovery,” said David Yepez, analyst at Exencial Wealth Advisors. “For the market to go to the bottom we have to be more afraid, and I don’t think the market is afraid right now.”

The financial and industrial sectors both advanced, while the energy sector gained more than 3% as oil prices rebounded after falling 6% in the previous session.

Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft have pulled down the S & P-500 and the Nasdaq.

Intel fell 1.2% after posting earlier gains following its announcement of a $ 20 billion project to build two factories to boost its semiconductor production capacity.

Bitcoin rose 2.5% after Tesla boss Elon Musk announced that the electric vehicle maker would now accept bitcoin payments.

(Written by Paris)

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