Wall Street recedes, questioning trade negotiations

Wall Street ended slightly lower on Monday, financial players remain cautious on the progress of Sino-US trade negotiations after a renewed optimism on the subject late last week.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.11% to 26,787.36 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, dropped 0.10% to 8,048.65 points and the broad S & P 500 index fell 0.14% to 2,966.15 points.

The main Wall Street indexes advanced last week, led by Friday's confirmation by Donald Trump of a partial agreement between the world's two largest economies after two days of talks in Washington.

The US president had notably announced that China had committed to purchase agricultural goods for 40 to 50 billion dollars.

But investors were on their guard Monday, reacting to information from Bloomberg agency that Beijing wants to continue talks before signing the agreement.

"If we had real doubts, the markets would be much less well oriented. They still continue to live with the hope of an agreement "says Gregori Volokhine from Meeschaert Financial Services.

However, the expert believes that "What would have been ideal would have been to remove this fear of new tariffs as of December 15."

Customs tariffs of 15% on consumer goods from China are due to come into effect in December.

"The possibility of new tariffs would be very damaging for the American consumer and for the American economy"says Volokhine.

Sweets at Boeing

Investors were also preparing this week for the publication of the third quarter results of companies on the New York coast.

Several major US banks will report their results on Tuesday, including Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup.

Netflix and IBM will engage in this exercise on Wednesday.

The US bond market was closed Monday because of a semi-bank holiday in the United States.

Among stocks, Boeing sold 0.46%. The duties of aircraft manufacturer Dennis Muilenburg have been lightened to allow him to focus fully on the crisis of the 737 MAX grounded since mid-March.

Muilenburg, who has lost his cap as chairman of the board, may be pushed to the exit, according to experts.

General Motors fell 0.20%. Negotiations between the automaker and the powerful UAW union resumed Monday to try to end a strike that crippled GM production in the United States since September 16, sources concordant said.

Facebook lost 0.49%. Visa, Mastercard, eBay and Stripe announced Friday that they are retiring from Libra, the controversial digital currency project that the mid-2020 social network wants to launch.

SmilesDirectClub tumbled 12.85% after the California governor signed a law to protect consumers buying orthodontic products online. Since entering Wall Street in September, the specialist in recovery and teeth whitening has collapsed nearly 60%.