NEW YORK (awp international) – After some very high losses again at times, Wall Street still managed to jump into positive territory at the close of trading on Friday, albeit extremely narrowly. Initially, the Chinese central bank’s reduction of an important reference interest rate for long-term loans acted as a support, but then things went downhill all the more noticeably. The complex of issues of high inflation, the threat of recession and rising interest rates dominated the market and temporarily caused the market-wide S&P 500 to slide into a bear market with a minus of more than 20 percent since its record high at the beginning of the year. But then bargain hunters grabbed again at the low level.
At the end of the day, the S&P 500 recouped the losses by up 0.01 percent to 3901.36 points. With a drop of a good three percent, however, it was the seventh week in a row with losses. This is the longest losing streak since 2001.
The Dow Jones Industrial closed on Friday up 0.03 percent to 31,261.90 points. On a weekly basis, the Dow lost 2.9 percent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 also caught up towards the end of trading, but remained down 0.34 percent to 11,835.62 points.
Among the individual values on the New York stock market, Foot Locker knew how to convince according to business figures. After a solid first quarter, the sporting goods retailer spread optimism about its annual targets. The shares gained 4.1 percent.
The shares of agricultural machinery manufacturer Deere & Co. fell by 14.1 percent. The quarterly figures were weak due to cost pressure, wrote analyst Robert Czerwensky from DZ Bank. The board is trying to cover up this by including a positive one-time effect in the profits and the annual outlook. The analyst criticized this as an unusual procedure.
Tesla shares temporarily fell to their lowest since July 2021, closing 6.4 percent weaker. Supply chain problems in Asia, the sell-off of highly valued growth stocks and the uncertainty surrounding CEO Elon Musk’s planned takeover of the short message service Twitter are putting increasing pressure on the electric car manufacturer’s papers.
Ross Stores shares are down 22.5 percent. The clothing discounter shocked investors with weak first-quarter results and the reduction of its full-year targets. Analysts then cut their price targets. Other stocks in the industry were also affected by the bad news, such as Burlington Stores with minus 15 percent.
The retail industry was under a lot of pressure this week. Walmart, Target and Kohl’s spread pessimism, sending prices plummeting. High inflation and rising transportation and labor costs are putting pressure on profit margins in the industry. Kohl’s slipped another 13 percent on Friday.
The euro softened slightly. After the US market closed, the common currency was trading at $1.0561. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at 1.0577 (Thursday: 1.0525) dollars, the dollar thus cost 0.9455 (0.9501) euros.
On the bond market, the futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) rose by 0.34 percent to 120.11 points. In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 2.79 percent./ajx/he
— By Achim Jüngling, dpa-AFX —
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