Negative start to the week for US technology stocks, which are once again discounting the rise in Treasury yields. Alphabet, Apple and Nvidia are down. On the other hand, the shares of companies linked to the reopening, such as Citigroup, Carnival, United Airlines, rose. The energy sector is also very good, where the gains of Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum stand out, in the wake of the rally in oil prices, which sees WTI rising towards $ 76 and Brent at a step from $ 80 a barrel. Contracts earn around 1.8%.
At 3.40 pm Italian time, the Dow Jones advanced by 0.37% to 34.926 points; the S&P 500 drops 0.40%, the Nasdaq falls more than 1.20%.
“I think the big story that hasn’t been talked about last week is the movement of yields, which has been pretty even across the markets.” This is what the chief economist of Allianz Mohammed El-Erian said, speaking on Cnbc’s “Squawk Box” broadcast.
El-Erian referred to the recovery in US Treasury rates, which continues today. The 30-year rates, in particular, have caught up and exceeded the 2% threshold. 10-year Treasury rates, which had broken through the 1.4% mark last week, also broke through 1.5% today.
From the macro front, the data relating to orders for durable goods from the United States was published which, in August, jumped by 1.8%, compared to + 0.5% in July (data revised upwards from -0.1 % initially disclosed). The figure was much better than expected, given that analysts had forecast an increase of 0.7%. Excluding the transport component, the figure recorded an increase of 0.2%, worse than the estimated + 0.5%, and after the + 0.8% in July. Orders for capital goods excluding the aviation and defense sector increased by 0.5%, better than the estimated + 0.4% and an improvement on the previous increase of 0.1%.
The month of September for US equities remains in the red: the S&P 500 lost 1.5%, reporting its first negative month since January; the index is down by about 2% from the record of 2 September last; the Dow Jones lost 1.6%, the Nasdaq fell -1.4%.
Investors are paying attention to attempts by the US Congress to avoid a government shutdown, a default on US debt and even the possible collapse of US President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that she expects the $ 1 trillion infrastructure plan to be approved later this week, but also warned that the vote could postpone from today.
The US Congress must also pass a new budget law by the end of September to avoid the shutdown and must also find an agreement to increase or suspend the debt ceiling, to avoid what would be the US default on its debt for the first time. .
The default alert was launched by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who, earlier this month and for months now called on Congress to raise the debt ceiling.
“Once all available measures and available liquidity are exhausted, the United States will fail to meet its obligations for the first time in our history,” Yellen said, warning that, “based on our most recent information, the the most likely outcome would be that the money and the extraordinary measures would run out in October “.
In his speech earlier today, New York Fed Chairman John Williams said that “the US economy is close to hitting the standard of ‘further significant progress’ that we launched last December as a target to begin tapering. our asset purchases “.
Anticipation for the speech of Jerome Powell, number one of the Federal Reserve, who will speak tomorrow at a hearing in the Senate and then on Wednesday at the Central Banks Forum organized by the ECB.