NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock markets took a break on Friday and moved very little. Investors are apparently unwilling to lean too far out of the window before the long weekend, said a stockbroker. There will be no trading in New York next Monday on the occasion of “George Washington Day”.
The Dow Jones Industrial, which the day before had climbed another record high of 31,543 points, was last listed on Friday 0.12 percent lower at 31,393.86 points. This indicates a weekly gain of around 0.8 percent for the US benchmark index. The market-wide S&P 500 was last 0.07 percent up at 3919.01 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 stagnated at 13,734.99 points.
In general, the decline in the number of infections in the USA and the increasing pace of vaccination recently gave rise to some hope during the pandemic. “This makes economic easing more likely,” wrote economist Claudia Windt from Helaba. To promote the vaccination campaign, the US government has signed a contract with manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer for 100 million additional corona vaccination doses each. Moderna shares nonetheless fell 0.3 percent, while Pfizer stocks rose 1.0 percent.
Walt Disney shares lost 1.4 percent after the quarterly figures. The pandemic continues to weigh heavily on the entertainment group, but due to the booming streaming business, it returned to the black in the first quarter of the business year and exceeded expectations. According to DZ analyst Manuel Müh, the group is on the “slow path back to normal”. On the whole, Disney is getting through the crisis well, according to the expert.
Otherwise there were figures from the website service provider Verisign. These were apparently not well received by investors, with shares losing 1.4 percent.
Bumble’s shares continued their previous day rally on the second day of trading, gaining 12.8 percent. On Thursday for its debut on the US technology exchange Nasdaq, the papers of the operator of the online dating platforms Bumble and Badoo closed at $ 70.31, around 63 percent above the issue price of $ 43./edh/he
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