NEW YORK (awp international) – US stock markets have slipped back into reverse gear in anticipation of further Western sanctions against Russia. After the gains at the beginning of the week, the economically sensitive technology stocks in particular came under pressure on Tuesday.
Following the Bucha war crimes, the EU Commission presented a proposal for a comprehensive package of new sanctions against Russia. According to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, it includes, among other things, an import ban on coal from Russia.
Statements by the deputy chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Lael Brainard, also proved to be a burden. Brainard signaled a determined tightening of monetary policy. Reducing inflationary pressures is “a priority,” she said at an event hosted by the Minneapolis regional Fed, announcing a “series” of rate hikes. From May, they also want to start with a rapid reduction in the total assets, which had been massively expanded during the corona pandemic.
These steps would deprive the exchanges of liquidity. Such tighter monetary policy can be detrimental to equity markets as other asset classes then become more attractive. The Fed had already raised the key interest rate in mid-March for the first time since the Corona crisis. The background is the high inflation, which is fueled by rising raw material costs.
The leading index Dow Jones Industrial fell by 0.24 percent to 34,836.93 points. The broader S&P 500 fell 0.71 percent to 4550.04 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was down 1.82 percent to 14,883.74 points.
The online giant Amazon has secured places in dozens of rocket launches for its planned satellite network with fast Internet access. Contracts with, among others, the European provider Arianespace and the space company Blue Origin involve up to 83 starts. The network, called Kuiper, is said to have 3,236 satellites. Amazon competes with the Starlink network of the company SpaceX from tech billionaire Elon Musk. The Amazon papers lost more than two percent.
In contrast, Twitter shares continued their rally at the beginning of the week and rose by around three percent. Tech billionaire Elon Musk is also moving into the company’s board of directors after his surprising entry into the short message service. Musk officially has greater influence on Twitter’s strategy. The boss of the electric car manufacturer Telsa believes in the platform and is also a sharp critic, wrote Twitter boss Parag Agrawal. “This is exactly what we need” for Twitter to become stronger in the long run.
The day before, the company had announced that the Tesla founder would become the largest Twitter shareholder with 9.2 percent. The Twitter papers had responded with a price jump of 27 percent.
General Motors shares fell by around four percent in the clouded environment. The car company wants to expand its partnership with the Japanese carmaker Honda in the field of electromobility. They want to bring “a range of affordable electric cars” onto the market from 2027. They want to focus on the “compact crossovers” segment, i.e. compact cars with an SUV look./la/he
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