Wall Street is set to open in the green on Friday, heading for a third consecutive week of gains as investors continue to bet on further rate cuts.

Half an hour before the opening, the Dow Jones future contract is up 0.2%, suggesting an eighth straight session of gains for the index.

With a 0.3% gain in pre-market trading, the Nasdaq looks set to move even closer to its all-time record, set above 16,440 points last month.

For the week as a whole, despite being totally devoid of catalysts, the Dow has so far managed to gain 1.8% and the Nasdaq around 1.2%.

For several weeks now, investors have again wanted to believe that the more uncertain pace of the US recovery would prompt the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy.

The longer interest rates remain stuck at high levels, the more likely they are to penalize the economy and cause financial instability", points out Xavier Baraton, economist at HSBC AM.

This could create problems in the future, even calling into question investors' widespread assumption of a 'soft' landing for the economy," he adds.

The Dow Jones and Nasdaq are thus heading for a third consecutive positive week, enabling them to erase a large part of the losses incurred in April and return within sight of their all-time highs.

Investors also welcomed the calm that had returned to the bond market after two weeks of tension.

The yield on 10-year Treasuries thus stabilized below 4.50%, after reaching a high of 4.67% two weeks ago, the highest since last November.

The trend was also supported by the rise in oil prices, which rekindled investors' appetite for oil stocks.

The price of a barrel of Texas crude (WTI) rose by a further 0.6% to almost $80, as analysts at Goldman Sachs said they were counting on a further production cut by OPEC+ countries in June, due to stock levels still considered high.

The end of the week should remain relatively quiet in New York, with the only indicator of the day being the first estimate of the University of Michigan's confidence index.

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