Wall Street looks for direction after holiday break. Megacaps pressure – Stock Exchange

Wall Street returned from Christmas break without direction. In a session marked by reduced trading volume, investors took advantage of this day to reevaluate their investment portfolios and withdraw capital gains, at a time when the main North American indices have benefited from the usual Santa Claus “rally”. .

Investors also chose to bet on safer assets this Thursday, with North American yields reaching May highs and slowing gains from companies with larger market capitalization. Interest on the country’s ten-year sovereign debt reached 4.64% at the beginning of trading.

The S&P 500 ended the session with a loss 0,04% for the 6.037,59 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0,05% to 20.020,36 points. The Dow Jones appreciated 0,07% to 43.325,80 points.

Among the select group of the “Magnificent Seven”, six ended this Thursday’s session in the red, with the Tesla registering the worst performance and falling 1.76% to $454.13“We are at an inflection point in Treasury yields. Any move higher tends to create some weakness in the stock market,” explains George Cipolloni, portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management, to Reuters.

This Thursday was also the day to find out the number of unemployment insurance claims last week. Despite falling to the lowest number in a month, the new data continues to feed a narrative of a slowing but healthy job market. In the week ending December 21st, there were 1,000 fewer orders for a total of 219 thousand – a number lower than analysts’ expectations, which were 224 thousand.

In the world of cryptocurrencies, the fall of bitcoin is penalizing companies linked to the sector, even after MicroStrategy announced a plan to issue more shares – a move that will allow the company to reinforce its coffers with this digital currency. The technology company, now listed on the Nasdaq 100, fell 4,78% to 341,05 dollars, while other companies linked to the world of cryptoactives, such as Coinbase Global and Mara Holdings, also record considerable losses.

Thursday’s losses broke a streak of four consecutive sessions in the green for the Nasdaq and a streak of three consecutive sessions in the green for the S&P 500. Markets are in a period of strong appreciation, known as the Santa Claus “rally.” , and which leads, on average, to the main North American index appreciating 1.3% in the last five sessions of December and the first two of January, according to data from the Stock Trader’s Almanac cited by Reuters.