After three consecutive sessions of gains, the US equity markets stalled a little on Tuesday, in the absence of elements likely to provide real support for the trend.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones advanced 0.3% to 38,956.8 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2% to 16,383.6 points, returning to within 1% of its all-time high of 16,538.8 points.

In the absence of bad news, Wall Street maintained its positive momentum and extended the gains of recent sessions, benefiting in particular from timid positions in real estate and industrial stocks, which had been largely neglected since the start of the year.

After the recent surge, however, investors prefer to catch their breath and wait for new catalysts before buying again, especially as the earnings season is now almost over.

In the absence of major macroeconomic indicators, investors are keeping their eyes riveted on the quarterly publications of the latest laggards.

Disney, for example, fell by almost 10%, as the raising of its annual targets was overshadowed by sales and cash flow that were judged to have been 'a little tight' for the past quarter.

The predictive analytics specialist Palantir also suffered a heavy fall (-12%), a victim of profit-taking the day after the publication of its results, after having gained almost 47% since the start of the year.

Walmart stood out on the upside (+1.2%), posting the second-biggest gain on the Dow Jones index, supported by UBS, which raised its price target on the stock a week ahead of the group's earnings release.

The continued easing in bond yields is also likely to reassure investors, in the same vein as the previous day's gains on equities.

The yield on 10-year T-Bonds thus fell back below the 4.43% threshold, while the 2-year yield stagnated at 4.81%, marking a worsening of the curve inversion considered to be a technical precursor of a recession.

Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.