Wall Street Settled Mixed while Bonds Rallied

Wall Street closed mixed this Thursday. The Dow Jones rose 0.15% or 53.79 points, to 34,987.02. The session was marked by better than expected business results, including Morgan Stanley, which did not rescue the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq from the red.

The selective S&P 500 lost 0.33% or 14.27 points, to 4,360.03. 

The Nasdaq composite index, bringing together the most important technology companies, dropped by 0.70% or 101.82 points, to 14,543.13.

Investors thus seemed to ignore the corporate results presented this Thursday by Morgan Stanley, which exceeded expectations by experts. Still, its shares closed with a modest rise of 0.18%.

For analysts, this is because the market was already forecasting these good figures.

Although the S&P 500 posted a slight decline on Thursday, the index has been close to its record lately, having risen 16% so far this year, a pace that experts expect will continue.

By sector, public services companies led the gains by 1.19%. Meanwhile, essential consumer goods added 0.42%, and financial companies increased by 0.38%. The energy sector yielded 1,41%, the technological sector dropped by 0.84%, and non-essential consumer goods decreased by 0.64%.

Among the thirty Dow Jones stocks, Honeywell was the most significant winner adding 2.21%. United Health hiked by 1.28%, and Home Depot increased by 1.09%. The biggest loser of the session was Salesforce which shed 2%. At the same time, Walgreens Boots Alliance declined by 1.34%, and Intel lost 1.26%. 

Investors turned to bonds in hopes of weakening inflation

This Wednesday, Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, assured that a jump in the US consumer price index did not mean that high inflation would persist. However, he stressed that the economy is far from the central bank’s objectives to propose a change in monetary policy.

After Powell’s statements, longer-dated bonds found buyers. The prospect of price rise reduction has turned investors back into Treasuries.