WALL STREET END
by Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher Wednesday on a rebound in interest-rate sensitive high-growth stocks as investors processed data pointing to high inflation at the start, in contrast, of the quarterly earnings season.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.01%, or 344.23 points, to 34,564.59 points.
The broader S&P 500 gained 49.14 points, or 1.12%, to 4,446.59 points.
The Nasdaq Composite, in turn, rose 272.02 points (2.03%) to 13,643.59 points.
During the day, JPMorgan Chase & Co reported a 42% decline in earnings for the January-March period, reflecting a decline in trading income and an unfavorable geopolitical context for transactions. The bank’s title fell by 3.2%.
By contrast, airline Delta beat expectations in the first quarter and says it expects a return to earnings in the current quarter on the basis of “historically strong” demand, which would lead to a 6.2% increase in its shares and earnings. in the aviation sector.
“There is hope about the earnings season and how companies have managed to manage this volatility,” said Matthew Keator, president of Keator Group, a management firm based in Lenox, Massachusetts.
He noted that after the health crisis, consumers wanted to return to a certain “normality” and said they were finally starting to travel en masse.
Official statistics show that producer prices in the United States rose more than expected last month.
Several US indicators rose above the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) inflation target of 2%, with officials’ comments paving the way for an impending 50 basis point increase in inflation.
The central bank, which began tightening monetary policy last month, must strike a balance between tackling high inflation and protecting the US economy from a potential recession.
Ahead of the Easter weekend, the earnings season continues on Thursday with several major banks, including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.
Analysts’ estimates for the quarterly results are now slightly less optimistic. On average, they expect earnings growth of the S&P 500 companies at 5.4% for the first three quarters of the year, compared to a forecast of 7.5% earlier this year.
(French version Jean Terzian)
