The New York Stock Exchange ended the semester directionless, with a slight predominance of profit-taking: the S&P500 and Nasdaq ended down -0.18% and -0.16% respectively, while the Dow Jones scraped up +0.03% to 39,146 points... and gained +1.5% over the week, outperforming the S&P and the Nasdaq (+0.3%).

Investors are continuing to take profits on the major technology stocks, following their upward trend of recent weeks, which led them to set new all-time highs.

Among the US tech heavyweights, AI chipmaker Nvidia is suffering the most severe profit-taking, with a decline of over 3.2% on top of the 3% already lost yesterday. Broadcom, which had just set a new record, is also down -4.5%, while Micron is down -3.2%.

NB: Nvidia is still up over 155% since the start of the year, which has largely contributed to the +5.4% gain in 4 weeks and the +7.6% rise in the index over the quarter, which expires this evening (stock option settlement at 10 p.m.).

However, the decline of the tech giants may look like a normal technical pullback, as part of the ongoing rotation of asset portfolios.

The economic indicators published over the course of the morning do not seem to have had any notable impact.

Growth in the US private sector accelerated very slightly in June, according to S&P Global's composite PMI, which came in at 54.6 in flash estimates, compared with 54.5 in final data for the previous month.

S&P Global points out that output has now risen continuously for 17 months in a row, with a marked improvement in the pace of expansion between May and June, while price pressures have eased.
The index of leading indicators, which is supposed to forecast the evolution of economic activity in the United States, fell more sharply than expected in May, announced the Conference Board on Friday, which said it saw this as a sign of slowing growth.

The precursor index fell by 0.5% last month, to 101.2, after declining by 0.6% in April, while economists were forecasting a more limited decline of around 0.3%.

While the Conference Board indicates that such an indicator is not a harbinger of a coming recession, the trade organization now says it expects US GDP to rise by less than 1% annualized in the second and third quarters due to inflation and high interest rates, which it believes are weighing on consumer spending.

Existing home sales in the United States fell by 0.7% in May 2024 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.11 million, according to statistics released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The median sales price of existing homes jumped 5.8% on May 2023 to $419,300 - the highest price on record and the eleventh consecutive month of year-on-year increases... meaning that real estate purchases have never been so unaffordable, with first-time buyers an extinct species.

The stock of unsold existing homes rose by 6.7% on the previous month to reach 1.28 million at the end of May, equivalent to 3.7 months' supply at the current rate of monthly sales.

US bond yields stabilize after yesterday's sharp deterioration.... and the deluge of US figures seems to have frozen initiatives.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries deteriorates marginally by +1.5Pt to 4.265%, while the '2-year' remains equally immobile at 4.740%.

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