Wall Street finally opted for the upside, under the positive impact of a wave of cheap buybacks after a weekly fall of -3% for the S&P500 and -5.6% for the Nasdaq.

The main US indices, which had reopened +0.7% to +0.8% higher, had practically wiped out all their initial gains after 90 to 100 minutes of trading... but that's when the buyers decided to regain the upper hand (the S&P500 returning to the 4,960 support level).
Monday's session allowed us to observe how Wall Street behaved 'spontaneously', in the absence of 'stats' or statements from central bankers: this made it easier to preserve support.
In the end, the S&P rallied by almost +0.9% (to 5.010, after gaining as much as +1.5% around 8:30 p.m.), the Nasdaq Composite +1.1% to 15,450, in the wake of Nvidia (+4.4%, after -10% on Friday), Illumina +2.4%, Micron +2.2%, Microchip +2.3%, Cadence Design +1.7%, Alphabet +1.4%.

Note that Tesla, the day's most active stock, fell a further -3.4% (and as much as -5% during the session) after announcing a price cut of $2.000 in an attempt to counter Chinese competition (thus sacrificing margins, which has already cost the company almost -20% in 1 month and -43% since January 1st).

The Dow Jones (+0.7%) laboriously climbed back above the 38,000 mark, ending at 38,240 in the wake of Goldman Sachs +3.3%, Bank of America +1.7%, Amazon +1.5%.
Earnings season will start in full swing in the US this week, with results from tech titans Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet, which could offer a second wind to the markets.

'We believe that the recent risk-averse backdrop and correction affecting tech stocks represents an obvious buying opportunity ahead of the upcoming results', says Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Looking beyond the results, investors will be keeping an eye on the first gross domestic product (GDP) figures for 'Q1' (the consensus is for growth to slow to 2.9%, after the 3.4% recorded in the fourth quarter), and then on inflation trends with the release, on Friday, of the PCE index in the United States, the Fed's preferred indicator of price dynamics.

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