Wall Street ends on a low bounce

by April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York stock Exchange rebounded on Monday after sharp decline on Friday, taking advantage of an easing in the trade irritants with China, but the major indices have cut their gains in the end of the session according to information of press a search in a lawyer’s president Donald Trump.

The Dow Jones has finished on a modest gain of 46,34 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 23.979,10 after you have taken up to 441 points at the highest of the day.

The S&P-500, wider, has won 8,69 points or 0.33% to 2.613,16, ending at 40 points, its highest of the day, and the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6.950,34, up 35,23 points (0.51 per cent) but far from its peak of the session to 7.074.

The indices have nosedived in the last minutes after a information from the New York Times that the FBI has raided the office of Michael Cohen, the lawyer of the president in the case of Stormy Daniels, of the name of an actress in pornographic films who is said to have had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

“Even if there is nothing at the end of the account, the initial reaction is always negative,” said Randy Frederick, head of derivatives at Charles Schwab in Austin (Texas).

The session had started, at best, the market welcoming the efforts of the administration to allay the fears of trade war with China, which had contributed to a fall of more than 2% on Wall Street on Friday.

After a tweet over the weekend, Donald Trump, who said to bet on an agreement with Beijing in the field of intellectual property, his economic advisor Larry Kudlow said this to the chain CNBC that the United States would be favourable to the formation of an “international coalition” to handle the file exchanges with China. “The president is open to that. It’s not yet to seek assistance, but it is open”, he said.

Markets will be attentive Tuesday in a speech by the chinese president Xi Jinping at the Boao Forum, the chinese equivalent of the Davos world economic Forum.

The investors hope to get back to the fundamentals of the market with the launch of the publications of the results of the first quarter, which will be given on Friday by the banks JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC).

Boosted in part by lower taxes on companies intended by Donald Trump, the profits of the companies composing the S&P 500 are seen on average an increase of 18.4% over the period January-march, which would be their quarterly growth is the most marked in seven years.

“We count on earnings season to re-establish the bullish trend in the market,” said Keith Lerner, strategist at SunTrust Advisory Services in Atlanta.

DECLINE IN THE DOLLAR, YIELDS ON THE RISE

Only six of the 11 major sectoral indices S&P have retained earnings in closing, with the largest increases being for the health (+0,93%) and technology (+0,78%).

At the head of the Dow Jones, Merck (NYSE:MRK) has awarded the 5.25% after having announced the success of a clinical trial of its flagship product, Keytruda in the treatment of lung cancer.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) and Century Aluminum have jumped, respectively, 5,35% and 12,09%, taking advantage of the jump of 4.4% in aluminum prices after the announcement of u.s. sanctions against Russia that aim, in particular, Rusal, one of the world’s leading producers of this metal.

Also looking for, the giant seed Monsanto (NYSE:MY) has taken 6,19% in response to information from the Wall Street Journal that the u.s. department of Justice has authorized its project to merge with the German Bayer (DE:BAYGN).

Among the values of the second rank, AveXis, a laboratory specialized in rare diseases, has departed from 81,57% after the announcement of its buyout for $ 8.7 billion by the swiss Novartis (SIX:NOVN).

To technology, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has taken 0,99% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rose by 0.46% on the eve of the hearing, eagerly awaited its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg before a Congressional committee about the misuse of personal data of millions of users.

Some 6,28 billion shares changed hands on the different markets in the u.s., is less than the average of $ 7.3 billion in the past 20 sessions.

The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies, responding always to the fears of trade war. The dollar index has surrendered 0.3% to 89,859 after a lowest since march 28, to 89,818. The euro appreciated 0.3% to 1,2317 dollar.

On the bond market, the yield on the 10-year u.s. rose to 2,782%, compared to 2,775% Friday night, waiting for the speech of the chinese president on Tuesday and a major refinancing operations planned over the next three days in the United States.

“The combination of tweets supportive of Trump on the front of foreign trade and the auctions to come and complicate the start of the week on the bond market,” notes Ian Lyngen, head of strategy rates at BMO Capital Markets in New York.

The rebound in the stock market has benefited the oil prices, which have taken more than 2% on the Nymex.

(With Sweta Singh and Diptendu Lahiri, Bangalore, Véronique Tison for the French service)