The US stock market ended slightly in green Tuesday, stabilizing after its plunge of more than 4% over the previous two sessions. Wall Street stood in the green for most of the day, but dropped shortly before the close. Still, the stock markets recovered somewhat after series of declines in the previous trading days. Investors were looking closely at the Federal Reserve that started its two-day policy meeting. Investors are marking time before the Fed’s decision on Wednesday, expecting a final rate hike before a likely pause in 2019, given the risks on US and global growth.
Faced with these risks, WTI oil prices collapsed Tuesday by more than 7%, causing oil prices to fall. Markets are also monitoring political issues, with a risk of “shutdown” from Saturday at 00:01 in case of disagreement on the financing of the wall that Trump wants to complete building between the United States and Mexico.
US stock indexes gained more than 1% in trading, but they significantly reduced their growth at the close. The Dow Jones index finally recovered 0.35% to 23,675 points, while the broad index S & P 500 finished higher (+0.01%) at 2,546 pts and the Nasdaq composite index rebounded 0.45% to 6.783 pts. In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 yielded 0.77%, while in Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.95% to 4.754 pts.
Few US statistics were on released on Tuesday. It should be noted, however, that both housing starts and building permits were higher than expected in November, which is a surprise. Indeed, several indicators of the real estate sector have faltered in recent months: Monday in particular, the index of confidence of homebuilders, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) stood at only 56 in December, against a consensus of 61. November, it had already plunged 8 points to return to 60.
Tuesday did not bring fresh news regarding the ongoing trade negotiations between China and the United States.
