© Reuters. WALL STREET ENDS UP ON THE NEW RECORDS
by Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street has ended on new highs on Friday in spite of a statistic of the job below expectations, the market wanting to believe that this will prompt the federal Reserve to remain measured in its rate hikes in 2018.
The Dow Jones has gained 220,74 points, 0.88%, 25.295,87 after having nudged the 25.300 with a record 25.299,79 points.
The S&P-500, wider, took 19,16 points, or 0.70 per cent, to 2.743,15, ending almost at its high of the day.
The Nasdaq Composite has advanced its side of 58,64 points (0,83%) 7.136,56, carried by the technology sector.
On the first week of the year, the Dow took 2.3%, the S&P up 2.6% and the Nasdaq 3.4%, to signing their best performance weekly for over a year.
“It is no more than 2% increase over the first four days of 2018, it is not bad. The expected effects of the tax reform and the economic outlook is favourable, continue to support the trend,” says Mike Baele, director-general of U. S. Bank Private Client Wealth Management at Portland (Oregon).
The number of jobs less good than they expected to deter the Fed from being too aggressive in its rate hikes, which is also a supporting factor for stocks, ” he adds.
The department of Commerce has identified of 148,000 jobs last month, far fewer than the 190,000 economists were expecting on average.
Determined to see the glass as half full, investors have noted that the average hourly wage had risen by 0.3% after rising 0.1% in November, an increase of 2.5% year on year.
Traders continue to bet that the Fed does raise its rate on two occasions this year, the first in march, after the three constrictions of 2017.
THE TECHS GIVE THE TEMPO
Nine of the 11 sectoral indices S&P finished higher led by the technology index has made 1,18%, its best performance week since December, 2016. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet, the parent company of Google (NASDAQ:GOOGLE), were respectively 1.24 per cent, to 1.14% and 1.33%.
Only the compartment of the energy (-0,02%) and the values of community services (-0,01%) have finished – very light weight – decline, penalized the first by the falling price of oil and the seconds by their defensive profile.
Boeing (NYSE:BA), up from 4.10%, has signed the best performance of the Dow Jones.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) gained 2.12 per cent to 209,99 dollars, after a record 210,02. The site on-line video will launch on January 12, a one-hour program’s star reporter, David Letterman, whose first guest will be former president Barack Obama.
Among the values of the second rank, the group of ready-to-wear Francesca’s Holdings plummeted 20% after it said to expect a drop in sales this quarter.
(with Sruthi Shankar in Bangalore, Véronique Tison for the French service)