Wall Street missed out a little on the eve of the crucial "4 Witches" session that will conclude the first half of the year, with the blame falling on semiconductors (-1.6%) and Nvidia, which completely reversed course after a thunderous start to the session.

After all, it all started under the best of auspices (70% of shares up, compared with just 40% at the final bell), following a Wednesday holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery ('Juneteenth').

The US indices had been on a winning streak since June 8, and the start of trading, with average gains of +0.3%, seemed to be the prelude to a continuation of this upward trend.... an almost inevitable scenario on the eve of a quarterly deadline.

The Nasdaq Composite quickly set a new all-time high at 17,936, the S&P500 at 5,505 and the Nasdaq-100 at 19.980, with the latter clearly aiming for a symbolic zenith of 20,000 by Friday evening.

But the beautiful bullish mechanics came to a halt at around 6.20pm, as Nvidia erased its initial 3.5% gain to tip into the red and finish at its lowest point, down -3.5%. It thus relinquished first place in terms of capitalization to Microsoft.

The Dow Jones (+0.8% to 39,135) seems to have benefited from a "sector rotation", as the historic index continued to gain ground, while the Nasdaq Composite sank symmetrically (-0.8% to 17,722), in the wake of semiconductors.

A number of statistics enlivened the session in the United States, including the latest housing figures: housing starts fell by 5.5% in May, below expectations, while building permits were down by 3.8%.

The Philly Fed index fell by three points to +1.3 this month. More than 32% of companies surveyed said they expected business to increase over the next six months, 19% a decline and 47% stable.

On the bond market, T-Bonds finished sharply lower, causing yields to soar: by +12 basis points on the '10-year' to 4.27%, as well as +3 basis points on the '2-year' to 4.735% and on the '30-year' to 4.40%.

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