NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After the setback the day before, especially in tech stocks on the Nasdaq, the US stock exchanges are expected to be solid at the end of the week. Broker IG rated the Dow Jones Industrial 0.16 percent higher at 32,915 points around three quarters of an hour before the start and the Nasdaq 100 0.7 percent higher at 12,882 points. This would keep the Dow in close contact with the 33,000 mark, which it had surpassed for the first time in the past few days.
The day before, rising bond yields had once again weighed on technology stocks concentrated on the Nasdaq. Ten-year US bonds had yielded on Thursday against the background of rising growth and inflation expectations at their peak of 1.75 percent, as much as they have been since the beginning of 2020. From this side, however, there will be some relief on Friday: The ten-year-olds recently returned a little less than 1.70 percent.
“With the US economic calendar doing little to distract investors, sentiment and inflation expectations will remain in the spotlight,” said market watcher Sophie Griffith of broker Oanda. As long as the yields on ten-year government bonds stay below 1.7 percent, the last trading day of this week on the US stock exchanges could become friendlier again. Currently, the Dow is in the weekly balance with 0.25 percent in the plus, the Nasdaq 100 but with a little more than one percent in the red.
The first meeting of the new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with his Chinese colleague Yang Jiechi, which began the day before, could also provide a topic of conversation. According to market observer Jim Reid from Deutsche Bank, the choice of words that both sides voted on on the first day testified to a harsh climate. This could cause investors to fear that relations will remain tense even under Joe Biden’s US presidency. The talks should continue on Friday.
On the corporate side, the focus is mainly on the numbers from Nike and Fedex, which were presented the evening before the closing bell. Investors drew different conclusions from these. The shares of Nike sagged before the market by 1.7 percent, those of Fedex, however, rose significantly by 5.5 percent.
At Nike, investors reacted disgruntled to a disappointing sales trend in the past fiscal quarter. The sporting goods giant continued to benefit from the online shopping boom in the corona pandemic, but a decline in revenues on the US market indicated difficulties in the supply chain, for example.
At Fedex, on the other hand, the quarterly report and the optimistic outlook were well received. The third fiscal quarter of the logistics group was better than expected in terms of earnings per share, wrote analyst Jordan Alliger from Goldman Sachs in a first comment. He believes the underlying earnings performance was even better than the report puts it. / Tih / jha /
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