On the eve of the crucial "4 Witches" session which will conclude the 1st half of the year, Wall-Street was a little "off", with semiconductors (-1.6%) and Nvidia completely reversing course after a thunderous start to the session.

After all, it had all started under the best of auspices (70% of shares up, compared with just 40% at the final bell) following a Wednesday holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery ('Juneteenth').

The US indices had been climbing since June 8th, and the start of trading, with average gains of +0.3%, seemed to be the prelude to a further rise in the US indices... an almost inevitable scenario on the eve of a quarterly deadline.

The Nasdaq quickly set a new high at 17,936, the S&P500 at 5.505, the Nasdaq-100 at 19,980 and clearly aiming for a symbolic zenith of 20,000 by tomorrow evening.

But the beautiful bullish mechanics came to a halt around 6.20 p.m. when Nvidia, the world's largest capitalization, erased its initial 3.5% gain (the 'capi' rose to $3.425Bn), only to fall back into the red, ending the day down -3.5%.
Nvidia ($3,218Bn) thus relinquishes 1st place to Microsoft (-0.2% to $3.312 billion), but remains ahead of Apple (down -2.2.5% to $3,215 billion).

The Dow Jones (+0.77% to 39,135) seems to have benefited from a "sector rotation", as the historic index continued to gain ground, while the Nasdaq sank symmetrically (-0.8% to 18.718), in the wake of Micron -6%, Qualcomm -5.1%, Microchip -4.7%, On Semiconducteurs -4.4%, Applied Materials -3.2%... the exception that proves the rule was AMD with +4.6%.

Several US statistics enlivened the session in the United States, with the publication of the latest housing figures: housing starts were down by -5.5%, at 1.277 million, compared with the consensus target of 1.37 million, after 1.35 million in April.
Building permits were also down, at an annual rate of 1.386 million in May in the United States, after 1.44 million in April (the consensus was for stability).
The Philly Fed index fell by 3 points to +1.3 this month.
The new orders sub-index remains negative but is improving, from -7.9 in May to -2.2 in June.

The employment sub-index improved from -7.5 to -2.5, while the prices paid sub-index rose by +4 points to 22.5.

According to the survey, more than 32% of companies surveyed said they expected business to increase over the next six months, 19% a decline and 47% stable.

Registrations for unemployment benefits fell by -5,000 to 238,000, but this was slightly less than expected, the consensus having been for -8.000 to 235,000

On the bond market, T-Bond yields ended sharply lower and yields soared: +12Pts on the '10-year' to 4.27%, +3Pts on the '2-year' to 4.735% and +3Pts on the '30-year' to 4.400%.

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