After opening in the green, the New York Stock Exchange turned lower on Tuesday on profit-taking that particularly affected technology stocks, as Fed officials began to question more and more explicitly the need to cut rates.

In late morning trading, the Dow Jones dropped more than 0.5% to 38,678.8 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell back 0.4% to 16,191.3 points.678.8 points, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.4% at 16,191.3 points.

The S&P 500 index set a series of all-time highs at the end of March, thanks to the prospect of a "soft landing" for the US economy accompanied by rate cuts by the Fed.

This index has now posted a gain of around 9% since the start of the year.

However, several senior Fed officials have recently expressed doubts as to the relevance of monetary easing, particularly in view of the strength of the job market and persistent inflation.

"It's hard not to see this as a concerted action to tighten financial conditions a little and send a message to the markets", says Alexandre Baradez, Head of Market Analysis at IG France.

In this respect, tomorrow's release of monthly inflation figures could tip the balance a little more in favor of a pause on rates.

These doubts are prompting some profit-taking on the big tech names on the stock market that had distinguished themselves in the first quarter, such as Nvidia (-4%), Meta (-2%) and Netflix (-1.8%).

On Wall Street, 'hi-tech' stocks are considered the most sensitive to changes in Federal Reserve rates. In addition, the month of May, reputedly favorable to profit-taking, is starting to approach.

On the upside, Cisco stands out with a gain of over 2% in response to positive comments from Deutsche Bank, which has decided to make the network equipment manufacturer's stock a 'buy idea'.

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