Wall Street ended without direction, rather on a bearish bias, but the gaps were insignificant overall, with the Russell-2000 finishing at +0.01%.

While the Dow Jones grabs +0.16% (thanks mainly to Boeing's +4%), the S&P500 retreats -0.08% and the Nasdaq -0.22%: no trend emerges, and this comes as something of a surprise in the wake of Moody's decision to downgrade the USA's credit rating to 'Aaa' with negative outlook (the next downgrade would take the rating to 'AA').

What resilience on Wall Street against a backdrop of a marked slowdown in the real estate sector and trade tensions with China (with the "chip war" and the string of embargoes that go with it): investors are hoping for a resumption of a "more constructive dialogue" following the Xi-Jinping/Joe Biden summit... but nothing is less certain.

Meanwhile, the Utilities sector (-1.2%, red lantern this evening) continues its descent into hell, while property developers (-0.8%) also remain neglected.
The Nasdaq has consolidated for the 2nd time -only- since the beginning of November in the wake of Illumina -5.7%, eBay -2.8%, Intel and AMD -1.6%, Comcast -1%, Apple -0.9%, Microsoft -0.8%.

The US bond markets were no more inspired, with T-Bonds down just -0.5pts to 4.6320%, a totally banal and insignificant variation, against a backdrop of lower volatility than in the previous 3 sessions (November 8, 9 and 10).

The Moody's decision is not the only worry that could have preoccupied holders of US debt: there is also the risk of a shutdown if the ceiling on federal spending is not raised.

But as this is an annual soap opera that has been going on for decades (the Clinton era, before the year 2000) and always ends with the vote of an 'extension' of tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, Wall Street is hardly worried.

If the "macro" calendar was deserted on Monday, the week promises to be rich in "macro" data of 1st importance, with notably the latest inflation figures in the USA, but also retail sales and new data on the real estate sector across the Atlantic.

These indicators should confirm that a slowdown in the global economy is indeed underway, but also that inflation is easing only very gradually.

Copyright (c) 2023 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.