Wall Street finally opted for the upside on Monday, under the positive impact of a wave of bargain-basement buybacks after a weekly drop of -3% for the S&P500 and -5.6% for the Nasdaq.

After reopening +0.7% to +0.8% higher, the main US indices practically wiped out all their initial gains after 90 to 100 minutes of trading... but it was at this point that buyers decided to regain the upper hand (the S&P500 returning to the 4,960 support level).

Monday's session allowed us to observe how Wall Street behaved 'spontaneously', in the absence of 'stats' or speeches by central bankers: this made it easier to preserve support.

In the end, the Dow Jones (+0.7%) ended at 38,240, in the wake of Goldman Sachs +3.3%, Bank of America +1.7% and Amazon +1.5%. The S&P recovered by nearly +0.9% to 5,010, and the Nasdaq Composite +1.1% to 15,451, driven by Nvidia (+4.4%, after -10% on Friday), Illumina +2.4%, Micron +2.2%, Microchip +2.3%, Cadence Design +1.7% and Alphabet +1.4%.

Note that Tesla, the day's most active stock, fell a further -3.4% (and as much as -5% during the session) after announcing a reduction in the price of its models by $2.000 in an attempt to counter Chinese competition (thus sacrificing margins, which has already cost the company almost -20% in one month and -43% since January 1st).

Earnings season will start in full swing in the US this week, with those of tech titans Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet, which could offer a second wind to the markets.

We believe that the recent risk-averse backdrop and correction in tech stocks represents a clear buying opportunity ahead of the upcoming results," said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Beyond the results, investors will be watching for the first US GDP figures for the first quarter of 2024 (the consensus is for growth to slow to 2.9%, after the 3.4% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023), followed by the PCE inflation index, the Fed's preferred indicator of price dynamics.

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