A soporific session on Wall Street, which from 3:30 p.m. was trading within narrow limits: buyers kept the upper hand, but scores quickly froze at around 0.2% for the S&P and Nasdaq (which continue to string together record after record) and -0.1% for the Dow Jones.

Once again, Wall Street closed at its highest with more stocks down than up (55/45)... and we've lost count of the records broken under these rather unusual technical conditions.

Buoyed by semiconductor-related stocks, the Nasdaq Composite set its 26th all-time record (6th in a row): it peaked at 18,512 before closing just above 18,400.
The S&P 500 (+0.07%) was not to be outdone, setting its 36th record since January 1 (peaking at 5.488) to close at 5,477, while the Dow Jones continues to struggle with -0.15% (after giving up 0.3% in the morning).
The Nasdaq-100 climbed to a new high of 20,544pts, but ended just above equilibrium at 20,445, in the wake of Intel +2.3%, Tesla +3.8%, Sirius +5.4%.

Bond markets are down +3pts at 4.2960% (4.32% at worst), and the next 48 hours could be volatile with the publication of the latest US inflation figures on Thursday, which will be closely watched by investors.
At his scheduled hearing before the US Congress today, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledges some progress in the fight against inflation, but reminds us that the Fed remains "data-dependent", and his words have given no further argument to those hoping for the next round of rate cuts to start in mid-September.

According to the Fedwatch barometer, traders are currently expecting a rate cut in September: the consensus is almost 74%.


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