Wall Street closes mixed and the Dow Jones rises 0.17%

Wall Street closed this Thursday on mixed ground and its main indicator, the Dow Jones Industrials, rose 0.17% after another irregular day focused on expectations about the path of interest rates in the United States.

At the end of operations on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones rose to 34,501 points while the selective S&P 500 lost 0.32%, up to 4,451 integers.

The Nasdaq composite market index, which groups technology companies, was once again the most affected, falling 0.89%, to 13,749 units.

The New York parquet had a mixed reaction to the weekly report of applications for unemployment benefits in the US, whose number fell last week to 216,000, less than what analysts expected, reflecting the strength of the labor market.

This data, added to the recent rise in energy prices, revived fears that the Federal Reserve will dictate a new rise in interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting, to be held from September 19 to 20.

Analysts believe there is a high probability that the central bank will pause the rate path, but its president, Jerome Powell, is always cautious given persistent inflation and reminds that the decision depends on the data.

By sectors, the gains predominated and were led by public service companies (1.26%), real estate (0.71%) and non-essential goods (0.5%), while the largest losses were for technology companies (-1.57%).

In the Dow Jones group, the drop in Apple’s price (-2.92%) stood out after learning yesterday that the Chinese government has prohibited all government officials and official agencies from using iPhones during working hours.

On the positive side, the biggest gains were for Intel (3.24%), Amgen (2.16%) and UnitedHealth (1.65%).

In other markets, Texas oil fell to $86.86 a barrel, and at the close of the stock market the 10-year bond yielded 4.25%, gold fell to $1,943.3 an ounce and the dollar gained ground against the euro, with a change of 1.0696.