NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The stabilization on the US stock market continued on Thursday. Concerns about inflation and recession receded into the background, even though the US Federal Reserve (Fed) is sticking to its aggressive course of interest rate hikes, as the Fed minutes made clear the day before.
“It sounds somewhat paradoxical that the US Federal Reserve would provide some relief on the stock market with further interest rate hikes. However, investors interpret the determination of the Fed, which emerges from the meeting minutes on this point, as a sign of confidence in the robustness of the economy”, explained capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from RoboMarkets. This means that the recession risks that have dominated recently have not received any new nourishment.
The Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) gained 0.80 percent to 31,284.80 points around two hours before the close of trading. The market-wide S&P 500 rose 1.26 percent to 3893.49 points, around 19 percent below its record high in January. At the same time, it has recovered somewhat from its one-and-a-half-year low in June, but remains at the threshold at which stockbrokers speak of a bear market.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 gained 1.93 percent on Thursday to 12,081.10 points. It is around 28 percent below its peak reached in November 2021.
Positive signals for numerous technology stocks, also in the USA, came from the Korean Samsung group (Samsung). In the earnings outlook for April to June, the world market leader in memory chips, smartphones and televisions is targeting significant growth. Shares of suppliers such as Applied Materials gained about 4.9 percent and Lam Research 6.0 percent. KLA (KLA-Tencor) and QUALCOMM clearly won. Samsung’s competitor Apple was up 2.5 percent.
Among small caps, GameStop jumped 12.5 percent after announcing a stock split. The video game retailer’s papers belong to the so-called meme stocks, which are hotly debated by private investors on social media and then attract attention with price caprioles.
Shares in retailer Kohl’s (Kohls) turned positive after initial losses. After hitting its lowest level since November 2020, it was last up 3.1 percent to $28.23. Bank of America analyst Lorraine Hutchinson downgraded the stock to “underperform” and lowered its price target to $26 from $50. She adjusts her judgment back to her negative assessment of the department store industry. In view of a possible takeover by the Franchise Group, which is now off the table, she had previously rated the share as “neutral”.
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