The New York Stock Exchange is set to open without much change on Thursday morning, with investors taking a breather the day after the Nasdaq set a new all-time high.

Half an hour before the opening, futures contracts on the main New York indices are all virtually unchanged, pointing to a balanced start to the session.

Buoyed by the continued stratospheric rise of Nvidia (+5.2%), the Nasdaq had gained not far from 2% on Wednesday, setting a new all-time high above 17.187.9 points.

With a market value of $3,012 billion, the chipmaker yesterday overtook Apple ($3,005 billion) as the world's second-largest market capitalization, and could soon overtake Microsoft ($3,145 billion).

While Nvidia continues to act as a driving force for the US market, the indices could nevertheless start to run out of fuel to seek new highs in the absence of clarity on the evolution of the Fed's monetary policy.

While the European Central Bank (ECB) has just made official its first rate cut since 2019, tomorrow's employment figures will undoubtedly prove decisive with a view to further monetary easing in the USA.

A lower-than-expected figure would raise hopes that the Fed will cut rates as early as September, which could be positive for the market.

For the record, the consensus forecast is for 180,000 new jobs created in May, which would mark relative stability compared with the 175,000 of the previous month.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported 229,000 new jobless claims in May.000 new jobless claims in the US last week, up 8,000 on the previous week, showing that the labor market is easing somewhat.

On the bond front, the yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds is back up above 4.31%, after five consecutive sessions of decline.

On the energy market, the price of a barrel of US light crude (WTI) has also ended its recent downward spiral, rebounding by 0.3% to $74.3.

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