Driven by the president-elect’s promises, the Fed’s orchestrated interest rate cuts and the tech sector’s boom, the three main NYSE indices soared on Wednesday.

By Arnaud Leparmentier

It’s quite stunning. On the New York Stock Exchange, the technology-rich Nasdaq index broke the 20,000-point barrier for the first time in its history on Wednesday, December 11; the S&P 500, which represents major US companies, is above 6,000 points; the Dow Jones is at 44,000 points. In total, since the start of the year, their respective surges have been by a third, 27.5% and 17.4%. Better still, over the last 10 years, they have been multiplied by four, three, and 2.5 respectively.

America is back, driven by tech. This has been true since the end of Barack Obama’s term, when he had to deal with the aftermath of the terrible financial and real estate crisis of 2008, which led to a terrible recession. And Donald Trump intends to build on this performance.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the president-elect was expected to ring the bell at the opening of Wall Street on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday morning, December 12. Despite his decades as a New York businessman, he has never done it before.

These days, Wall Street is being driven by three phenomena. The first is the cut in interest rates. The US Federal Reserve has cut rates by half a point and then a quarter point since September. The monetary institution is expected to ease the pressure further at the final meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee on Wednesday, December 18. Rates will then have fallen back to 4.25%.

Source: lemonde.fr