Washington (United States) (AFP) – The New York Stock Exchange is moving up slightly on Wednesday, catching its breath after two consecutive sessions of decline in the face of rising hostilities in the Middle East, while bond rates remain perched at record highs.

Published on: 02/09/2026 - 16:35

Around 2:15 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones gained 0.68%, the Nasdaq index gained 0.30% and the broader S&P 500 index advanced 0.40%.

Patrick O'Hare, analyst at Briefing.com, notes "a certain loss of steam" in the downward trend observed since the start of the week.

Wall Street is benefiting from some stabilization in oil prices and bond yields.

The United States and Iran have resumed their exchange of strikes in recent days, propelling oil prices and further accentuating the inflationary outlook.

Faced with a less reassuring economic outlook and the fear of seeing inflation eat into their margins, investors are demanding higher yields to hold these pieces of sovereign debt.

Result: global bond rates have soared to levels not seen in years.

Around 2:15 p.m. GMT, the ten-year yield on American government bonds was at around 4.79%, down slightly compared to the close the day before. It reached its highest since the end of 2023 earlier in the session.

With the conflict in the Middle East, borrowing costs have risen almost continuously since the end of February.

“The stock market has shown itself to be remarkable in its ability not to let itself be influenced by this rise in rates (...) but sooner or later, it ends up having repercussions, and I think that is exactly what is happening,” underlines Natalia Lojevsky, of CIFC Asset Management.

Bond rates dictate the rates for real estate and consumer loans. When they are higher, they also slow down the activity of companies, which slow down their investments and hire less.

Unless there is good news regarding the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic sea route for Gulf hydrocarbon exports, "oil prices will remain high and the interest rate market will follow that of energy", anticipates Art Hogan, analyst at B. Riley Wealth Management, to AFP.

The situation leads the markets to expect the American central bank (Fed) to carry out monetary tightening in September to calm the rise in prices.

If the institution has a dual mandate also requiring it to move towards full employment, its boss Kevin Warsh has particularly recently highlighted the risks on prices.

“It is difficult to imagine that the employment report (in the United States, editor's note) published at the end of the week could do anything to alleviate the fact that high energy prices and high yields clearly constitute a short-term brake” for the stock market, estimates Art Hogan.

Investors got a taste of this on Wednesday with the regular ADP/Stanford Labs survey which highlighted a new slowdown in hiring in the American private sector last month.

In the table of values, the computer group Dell gained 3.56% to 440.13 dollars, benefiting from forecasts well above expectations for the full fiscal year, in particular a net profit per share of 25.5 dollars against 18.92 dollars expected by the consensus of analysts carried out by LSEG.

The second quarter results were also a positive surprise, notably thanks to the good performance of its servers dedicated to artificial intelligence.

© 2026 AFP

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