A screen on the New York Stock Exchange on July 18, 2025 (AFP / Angela Weiss)
The New York Stock Exchange finished down Thursday, despite encouraging results from Meta and Microsoft, against a background of wait -and -see before the implementation of Donald Trump’s customs duties.
The Dow Jones lost 0.74%, the NASDAQ index ended at a level close to balance (-0.03%) and the enlarged S&P 500 index fell 0.37%.
“The reaction is moderate, (…) At the opening, however, we have noticed gains based on the excellent reaction of the market to the results of Meta and Microsoft”, comments with AFP Steve Sosnick, of Interactive Brokers.
The Redmond giant (Washington State) Microsoft published Wednesday after closing the results much higher than expectations for the fourth quarter of its offbeat accounting exercise.
Its title gained 3.95% to 535.80 dollars. The company has crossed the historic threshold of the 4,000 billion stock market valuation, after Nvidia, before falling back.
Another big name “Tech”, Meta (Facebook, Instagram) also delighted the market (+11.25% to $ 773.04) with rapidly growing quarterly income and profits, thanks in particular to the increase in advertising prices.
However, these results did not allow Wall Street to close in green, investors seeking to “position themselves before the publication of employment figures tomorrow”, according to Mr. Sosnick, with in particular the publication of the unemployment rate in the United States on Friday for July.
Published Thursday, the PCE index showed that inflation continued its rebound in June in the United States, registering at 2.6% over a year, under the effect of customs duties already entered into force.
“Inflation has been slightly higher than forecasts”, especially due to “the increase in energy prices and customs duties”, notes Bill Adams, from Comerica Bank.
Weekly unemployed registrations have been practically stable at 218,000, below the expectations of analysts who tamed on 224,000 requests.
In addition, market players are still asking questions about customs from Donald Trump, who must enter into force at midnight.
So far, Washington has announced agreements with the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea.
“There is an awareness that, even if they are 15%, customs duties are not favorable to the market,” said Sosnick.
On the bond market, the yield of American state loans at 10 years remained stable compared to the fence on Wednesday, at 4.37%.
On the table of values, the pharmaceutical sector was somewhat heckled after Donald Trump sent letters on Thursday to 17 companies to ask them to lower the prices of the drugs sold from the United States, under penalty of reprisals.
Eli Lilly lost 2.69%, Merck fell 4.43%and Novo Nordisk of 5.96%.
The American Moderna Biotechnology company, which marketed one of the first COVVI-19 vaccines, slipped from 8.06% to 29.56 dollars after announcing the dismissal of around 10% of its employees worldwide, against the backdrop of sales of its serum.
Ford advanced (+1.93% to $ 11.08) despite a net loss of $ 36 million in the second quarter because of, among other things, a recall of vehicles for risk of fuel length, and new customs duties.
The American collaborative design platform Figma made the first steps noticed on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, where the price of its action has almost tripled (+241.73% to 115.50 dollars).
Investors will digest the results of the Apple and Amazon giants after grants.
Nasdaq
