Wall Street closes mixed and the Dow Jones rises 0.27%

Wall Street closed in mixed territory on Wednesday and its leading indicator, the Dow Jones Industrials, rose 0.27% after investors digested comments from central bankers at a forum in Europe.

At the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones added 82.32 points, to 31,029.31 units; and the selective S

The Nasdaq Composite Index, which brings together the most important technology companies, lost 0.03% or 3.65 points, to 11,177.89 units.

At the annual central banking forum held by the European Central Bank (ECB) in Sintra, Portugal, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, said that the US economy is in good shape for the increases in interest rates that it is carrying out at the moment.

"Is there a risk that we go too far? There is certainly a risk," Powell noted, adding that the biggest mistake that can be made is "failing to restore price stability."

Investors are becoming less optimistic that the Fed can engineer a "soft landing," where interest rates rise to curb inflation without pushing the economy into recession.

“We expect the markets to remain afloat at best, until we get a convincing signal that inflation has peaked. Our confidence in a soft landing has been further reduced and the market has also headed in that direction. direction," Arun Sai, a multi-asset strategist at Pictet Asset Management, told The Wall Street Journal.

After three straight years of double-digit gains, the market is enduring a tough first half of 2022.

The S

Stock prices have been hit by rising interest rates, slowing growth, a rapid return of inflation, a faltering Chinese economy and the war in Ukraine.

The sectors that closed in red today were energy (-3.43%), real estate (-0.76%) and raw materials (-0.73%), while the health sector closed with gains (0. 97%), that of essential goods (0.49%) and that of communications (0.27%).

Among the 30 Dow Jones listed companies, McDonald's (2.02%), Microsoft (1.47%) and UnitedHealth (1.43%) closed with the highest profits; while, at the other extreme, the losses of Caterpillar (-2.11%), Chevron (-1.97%) and American Express (-1.91%) stood out.

In other markets, Texas oil fell to $109.36 a barrel, and at the close of trading, the 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 3.09%, gold fell to $1,819 an ounce, and the dollar strengthened. against the euro, with an exchange rate of 1.0439.