Time.news – Mixed session closing for Wall Street, with the Dow Jones index held back by macro data and the first quarterly figures of the season which penalized banking stocks, while the Nasdaq gained ground. The final figure sees the DJ lose 0.56%, the Nasdaq rise by 0.59%, the S&P 500 settle on + 0.08%.
As far as macroeconomic data is concerned, the US retail sales in December fell 1.9%, the worst figure in ten months, below expectations, as was the figure on industrial production in December, which decreased by 0.1%. The November figure has also been revised downwards.
Eyes then on interest rates, with the speeches of Fed officials that follow each other daily. After Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell tried to reassure that the Central Bank will be able to curb price increases without hurting the economy, Lael Brainard, named the vice president today, said he believes the inflation will drop to around 2.5% in 2022.
On interest rates, he reiterated that the Fed is poised for a hike in March, when the bond purchase program has ended.
But what weighed more were the accounts for the quarter, released today by Wells Fargo, JpMorgan Chase and Citigroup. The only one to be promoted was Wells Fargo, up 3.66% after reporting above-expected earnings and revenues.
JpMorgan disappointed (-6.16%) which made profits above expectations but decreased trading revenues and revised future estimates downwards; sells Citigrup (-1.21%) after announcing lower earnings in the quarter. Finally, Blackrock also dropped (-2.19%).
Consequently, the stocks of the sector fell with the sector index of banking stocks down by 2%. Among other financials American Express down 2.80%, Goldmans Sachs -2.51%. Among the other blue chips McDonald’s lost 1.44%, walt Disney -2.26%.
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