Wall Street didn't hit the grand slam this week: no 7th consecutive gain, no 6th record close in a row for the S&P (-0.07%), nor the Nasdaq Composite (-0.36%)... but several consolation prizes.

First of all, a week that ended on a clear upward trend, above +1% for both indices, a new intraday all-time high for the S&P500 at 4,906.7... and that's what saves this last session of the week, a double all-time intraday (38,214) and closing (38.109) for the Dow Jones, symbolically celebrating on all US news channels the historic zenith of America's most famous and oldest index.

The Nasdaq's record-breaking run was halted on Thursday evening - shortly after the close - by Intel's plunge (-8% in the after-hour, then -11.9% in real conditions on Friday), as the group unveiled median sales forecasts 15% below consensus.

Intel dragged down industry leaders such as Nvidia (-1%), AMD (-1.7%), Broadcom (-2%), Qualcomm (-2.4%), Microchip (-3.1%), Applied Materials (-3.3%)... The Nasdaq remained buoyed by Airbnb +5.4%, Comcast +2.2%, Netflix +1.7% and Amazon +1%.

The week's most eagerly awaited figure in the US did not disappoint: the PCE price inflation index stood at +2.6% annualized in December 2023, a stable rate compared with November, and excluding food and energy, it fell from +3.2% to +2.9% month-on-month.

Another very vigorous figure: consumer spending in the US rose by 0.7% last month compared with November, a better-than-expected increase, on income growth of just 0.3%.

On the bond front, the 10-year T-Bond deteriorated (+1 basis point) to around 4.142%, while the "2-year" tightened by +4 basis points to 4.355%, ending the week at its worst levels... with no detriment to US equity indices.

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