A soporific session on Wall Street, which from 3:30 p.m. was trading within narrow limits: buyers kept the upper hand, but scores quickly froze at around 0.2% for the S&P and Nasdaq (which continued to string together record after record) and -0.1% for the Dow Jones.

Once again, Wall Street closed at a record high with more stocks down than up (55/45)... and we've lost count of the records broken under these rather unusual technical conditions.

Buoyed by semiconductor-related stocks, the Nasdaq Composite set its 26th all-time record (sixth in a row): it peaked at 18,512 before closing just above 18,400 (+0.14% at 18,429).

The S&P 500 (+0.07%) was not to be outdone, setting its 36th record since January 1 (peaking at 5.488) to close at 5,577, while the Dow Jones struggled with -0.13% at 39,292 (after giving up 0.3% in the morning).

The Nasdaq-100 climbed to a new high of 20,544, but finished just above equilibrium (+0.07% at 20,453), in the wake of Intel +2.3%, Tesla +3.8% and Sirius +5.4%.

Bond markets deteriorated by +3 basis points to 4.296% (4.32% at worst), and the next 48 hours could prove volatile with the release of the latest US inflation figures on Thursday, which will be closely watched by investors.

At his hearing before Congress, Jerome Powell acknowledged some progress in the fight against inflation, while reminding the audience that the Fed remained data-dependent. His remarks gave no further support to those hoping for the start of a rate-cutting cycle in mid-September.

According to the Fedwatch barometer, traders are currently expecting a rate cut in September: the consensus is almost 74%.

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