NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Investors on the New York stock market presented themselves in the best of moods on Tuesday. They trust in a strong US economy. Concerns about a quick tightening of domestic monetary policy – fueled again by statements by St. Louis Federal Reserve Chairman James Bullard, who suggested a possible 0.75 percentage point hike in US interest rates – dampened the good mood not. Positive signals came from the US construction industry, which developed better than expected in March despite rising real estate interest rates.
At the close of trading, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial gained 1.45 percent to 34,911.20 points. The broader S&P 500 rose 1.61 percent to 4462.21 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was in even better shape, up 2.15 percent to 14,210.26 points.
“The past few months have been turbulent for stock markets,” wrote broker Oanda analyst Craig Erlam, referring to high inflation, the prospect of faster rate hikes, slower growth and the ongoing war in Ukraine. But in the first phase of the reporting season, the stock markets – and here again the stock exchanges in the USA – once again showed their robust side.
JPMorgan strategist Marko Kolanovic also believes that the mood and positioning of market participants on the stock market is now too pessimistic and tends to remain “constructive” for stocks. A rally is possible in the short term.
The number of new houses started and the number of building permits increased surprisingly. The data shows that the economy in the USA is doing very well and that Americans have a high level of confidence in their own economic performance, said market expert Andreas Lipkow from Comdirect.
There were quarterly figures from the Dow from the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and from the insurer Travelers. Johnson & Johnson’s shares rose by a good three percent. Thanks to solid organic growth, the group exceeded expectations for earnings per share, according to Credit Suisse. However, J&J is somewhat more cautious about the rest of the year.
Travelers lost 4.9 percent as the Dow bottom. The insurer started the year with a jump in profits thanks to low catastrophe losses and wants to increase the dividend. However, the stocks had already had a good run. The best values in the leading index were the titles of the sporting goods group Nike with a plus of 4.1 percent.
Investors at Lockheed Martin also took profits on Tuesday after the strong price development of the past few weeks. The titles were down 1.6 percent. The declining quarterly profit missed analysts’ expectations, as did sales. In addition, the armaments company stuck to its annual targets despite the Ukraine war.
Twitter dropped 4.7 percent. On Monday, the papers of the short message service had increased by 7.5 percent after management had taken countermeasures for the takeover attempt announced by Tesla boss Elon Musk. According to the Wall Street Journal, US financial investor Apollo may want to get involved in a takeover and is considering supporting Musk or another bidder with capital or loans in a bid.
The euro cost 1.0789 US dollars after the US market close. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at 1.0803 (Thursday before Easter: 1.0878) dollars, the dollar thus cost 0.9257 (0.9193) euros. Due to public holidays, no reference rates were set on Friday and Monday.
On the US bond market, prices accelerated their way down. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note future) fell by 0.59 percent to 118.94 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds rose to 2.94 percent./ajx/he
By Achim Jüngling, dpa-AFX
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