WallStreet: a shower of records, January +4.1% for the Nasdaq

(CercleFinance.com) - After a horizontal pause on Friday, Wall Street resumed its record-breaking run with a new surge in all the leading indices, 48 hours ahead of Jerome Powell's press conference on Wednesday.


Well helped by the easing of long rates (-8Pts), the Dow Jones gained 0.6% to 38.33, the S&P500 jumped +0.76% to 4,928 and the Nasdaq pulverized its highs with +1.12% to 15,628.928, and the Nasdaq pulverized its peaks with +1.12% to 15,628.
The Nasdaq-100 (+1%), has surpassed the +4% mark since January 1, in the wake of the semiconductor sector (+0.7%) with Western Digital +2.6%, and the inevitable Nvidia locomotive with +2.4% to $624.5 (for a capitalization of $1,540 billion, now greater than 50% of France's GDP).
Also of note were Zscaler +3.6% and MongoDB +6.3%, Illumina +4.3% and Tesla +4.2%, Paypal +3.2%.

Wall Street has already turned the page on the unprecedented tug-of-war between Texas (Martial Law), then the Republican states in solidarity with Texas and Washington (which is trying to regain control).

Wall Street's rise was slightly dampened by the heaviness of the sector following the -1.3% decline in the price of 'WTI' on the NYMEX: hence the slide of Diamondback -2.5%, Hess -1.2%, Halliburton -1%.

Investors are gearing up for another busy week, with an avalanche of quarterly results (186, i.e. more than a third), including those of the leaders in the technology sector.
The 5 GAFAMs, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta - which represent a quarter of the S&P500's capi - will publish their results starting tomorrow.

In the next 48 hours, the Federal Reserve will also announce its decisions, ahead of a press conference by Chairman Jerome Powell.

While no major announcements are expected, market participants will be on the lookout for indications of how monetary policy will evolve, especially as recent economic figures have been surprisingly strong.

"Powell is likely to leave the door open to the possibility of a rate cut in March, while avoiding reinforcing the likelihood of such a scenario for the time being", says Jim Reid, market analyst at Deutsche Bank.

According to the FedWatch tool, only 48.6% of traders now anticipate a rate cut in March, with 50.4% expecting a further 'status quo'.
The most eagerly awaited 'macro' data will certainly be the US employment report for January (published on Friday), which will shed light on the evolution of the labor market, which is closely watched by the Fed.

On the bond front, the start of the week is comforting: last week's losses have been fully erased, with -8.5 basis points on 2034 T-Bonds, at 4.076%.

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