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Wall ‘reacted’ after the two-day sell-off

Wall Street reacted after the sell-off of the last two sessions and the downward start of today’s session as well, with the indices erasing their initial losses and closing in positive territory, with investors “weighing” the ever harder monetary policy announced for the near future by the US Federal Reserve.

On the dashboard, the industrial Dow Jones gained 87.08 points or 0.25%, to 34,583.57 points, after being found to decline up to 300 points during the session. The wider S&P 500 recorded gains of 19.72 points or 0.44%, at 4,500.87 points, while the technological Nasdaq moved up 8.48 points or 0.06%, to 13,897.30.

Shares in the consumer goods and healthcare sectors led the recovery, with investors looking for shares – “shelters” that provide stable profits and dividends. Shares of Costco (+ 4%) and Pfizer (+ 4.5%), as well as those of Walmart, Merck, UnitedHealth Group and Procter & Gamble won.

Shares of Constellation Brands and Lamb Weston Holdings also jumped 4.6% and 8%, respectively, after the announcement of their results.

The day was also enjoyable for technology giants, especially after the middle of the meeting. Alphabet, Tesla and Meta offset losses and moved higher, while Twitter lost some of its gains earlier in the week, down 5.4%. Semiconductor companies Nvidia and AMD lost for the third consecutive day.

HP shares jumped 15% after it was revealed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has acquired a stake in the company.

“The market trend is not surprising,” said Timothy Lesko, senior wealth management consultant at Mariner Wealth Advisors. “You have a market that is trying to determine the capitalizations that come in a higher interest rate environment. Every economic news that emerges changes the forecasts and the market tries to adjust accordingly.”

The Fed released its monetary policy committee meeting in March on Wednesday, which revealed that its officials plan to cut trillions in its balance sheet by selling bonds worth up to $ 95 billion. officials are considering one or more interest rate hikes of up to 50 basis points if needed to fight inflation.

“Minutes of the last meeting show a higher level of alert than ever before and it looks like the Fed will move faster than expected to reduce its balance sheet,” said Charlie Ripley, chief investment officer at Allianz Investment Management.

Officials “generally agreed” to sell about $ 60 billion worth of US government bonds and about $ 35 billion worth of mortgages over three months, starting in May.

“They seem to be seriously discussing raising interest rates by 50 basis points at the next meeting, so they make sure the message goes through much earlier,” said Brian Price, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. “I expect volatility to remain high for the time being, as there is a lot of uncertainty that investors need to weigh,” he added.

Of course, the war waged by Russia against Ukraine remains on the investment radars, with Kyiv asking NATO for more weapons.

Of the 30 Dow shares, 16 traded positive and 14 traded negative. The profits are led by those of Merck, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Chevronwhile those losses of Visa, Goldman Sachs, Dow Inc.

US: Initial unemployment benefit applications are at their lowest level since 1968

Initial US jobless claims fell to a 54-year low in early April, confirming the strong picture of the US job market.

In particular, initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 166,000 for the week ended April 2, from a revised 171,000 last week, according to the Commerce Department.

Analysts’ average estimates in a Bloomberg poll put the applications at 200,000. The latest government figures include annual reviews until 2017.

Ongoing applications, meanwhile, rose slightly to 1.5 million for the week ended March 26th.

Source: Capital

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