NEW YORK (awp international) – After a long weekend, the US stock markets fell sharply at times on Tuesday. In trading, however, the Nasdaq indices managed a clear turnaround into the profit zone thanks to their strong focus on technology stocks. The S&P 500 also found its way into the black, while the Dow Jones Industrial also recovered noticeably, but closed with losses. Overall, the mood remained gloomy. Worries about a recession are increasingly dominating events on the trading floors.
The Dow ended the day down 0.42 percent to 30,967.82 points, slightly extending last week’s slightly more than 1 percent loss. The market-wide S&P 500 ultimately increased by 0.16 percent to 3831.39 points. The Nasdaq 100 Selection Index rose 1.68 percent to 11,779.91 points. However, it had lost a little more than four percent in the past week.
Talks between the US and China over the possible reversal of some trade tariffs introduced under former US President Donald Trump provided confidence. However, this should not seriously alleviate the fear of a recession, since even lower tariffs on imports of Chinese goods could do little to cool down the high inflation.
The surprisingly good incoming orders data from US industry for the month of May also received relatively little attention. In view of the prevailing supply chain problems and the resulting backlog of orders, such data have become secondary, it said.
Among the individual values, Chevron was the biggest loser in the Dow with minus 2.6 percent. ConocoPhillips ended the S&P 100 down 7.0 percent. ExxonMobil lost 3.1 percent. Oil prices fell significantly in the face of rampant fears of a recession.
In the meantime, for example, the US bank JPMorgan assesses the economic prospects in the USA as meager as those in Western Europe. The economists at the US bank therefore cut their estimates significantly. For the question of whether weak growth will ultimately turn into a recession, the reaction of companies is decisive, they wrote.
Nike, meanwhile, rose 3.1 percent at the top of the Dow. However, they only fell to their lowest level in around two years on Friday. Numerous stocks from the technology sector, some of which had also fallen to multi-year lows over the course of the past week, also went on a recovery course. The shares of the chip manufacturer Micron Technology rose by 5.7 percent. Paypal gained 4.2 percent and Nvidia 3.0 percent.
The papers of the corona vaccine manufacturers were mostly in the black – even if there was rather negative news about Biontech. The Tübingen biotech company Curevac filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Biontech and two subsidiaries in Germany. It is about the vaccine Comirnaty from Biontech/Pfizer (Germany/USA). Curevac fell 1.1 percent after initial gains, Biontech gained 2.2 percent, while shares in Biontech pharmaceutical partner Pfizer lost 1.3 percent. In the Nasdaq 100, the shares of the competitor Moderna also increased by 3.7 percent.
The euro was trading at $1.0269 in late US trade. At times it fell to $1.0235, its lowest level in around 20 years. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.0290 (Monday: 1.0455) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9718 (0.9565) euros. On the market for US government bonds, the futures contract for ten-year trend-setting Treasuries (T-Note future) rose by 0.45 percent to 119.80 points. In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 2.82 percent./ck/stw
— By Claudia Müller, dpa-AFX —
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