Positive start for US equities, after last eighth sell-off. After about half an hour of trading, the S&P500 is up 0.8%, the Dow Jones is up 0.8% and the Nasdaq is up 1%.
Among individual companies, Seagen soars 12% on Pfizer’s interest in acquiring the cancer therapy developer. Union Pacific also rose (+11%) in the wake of the replacement of the CEO due to pressure from a major shareholder.
The recovery follows Friday’s subdued session, held back by worse-than-expected data on the core PCE, a key indicator of inflation monitored by the Fed for its monetary policy moves.
The acceleration of underlying inflation, together with the central bank minutes released a few days earlier, reinforced the hypothesis of a still restrictive Fed for a long time, in order to bring prices under control. Traders are now pricing in US rates peaking at 5.4% in July, up from around 5% a month ago.
On Forex, the euro/dollar is getting closer to 1.06 after the drop in recent days in the wake of the appreciation of the greenback. Oil (Brent) fell to 81.8 dollars a barrel, while the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.9% and the two-year yield below 4.8%.
Data on orders for durable goods were also released during the day, falling at the fastest pace since 2020 (-4.5%) even if, net of transport, they increased (+0.7%) beyond expectations.