The New York Stock Exchange ended without clear direction Wednesday, failing to start frankly ahead after its tumble at the start of the week in a market still disturbed by the spread of the coronavirus.
The Dow Jones fell 0.46% to 26,957.59 points. The star Wall Street index has dropped 5.5% since the start of the year.
The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, lost 0.38% to 3,116.39 points.
The Nasdaq, helped by the rise of several technology stocks including the giants Netflix (+ 5.3%), Apple (+ 1.6%) and Microsoft (+ 1.3%), however, appreciated by 0, 17%, at 8,980.77 points.
The main New York indices started Wednesday’s session up sharply, before erasing the majority of their gains towards mid-session.
“We remain in a phase of uncertainty,” notes Art Hogan, of National, while the spread of viral pneumonia seems to be accelerating in several European, Asian and Brazilian countries, despite an apparent slowdown in the cases identified in China.
“There are always more reasons to worry than to be confident. We do not know at what stage of the epidemic we are and we do not know the extent of the economic damage”, continues the expert.
Donald Trump is due to speak late Wednesday from the White House on the coronavirus crisis in the presence of officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The American president accused his democratic opponents and certain media of fomenting the “panic” and to panic the markets, whereas the American health authorities plan however a propagation on American soil.
Economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Tuesday on the CNBC financial news channel urged investors not to panic, saying the coronavirus was not an “economic tragedy”.
On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt continued to evolve close to its historic low, standing at 1.336% around 21:20 GMT.
