Börse Express – ROUNDUP / Aktien New York End: Gloomy Friday because of the new Corona variant

NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Ironically on the bargain day “Black Friday” there was also a sale on Wall Street on Friday. The fear of a new coronavirus variant left the Dow Jones Industrial at times drop by almost three percent to the lowest level in six weeks. With 34 899.34 points, the price barometer was only able to reduce its losses slightly to 2.53 percent at the early close of trading. The weekly balance was still negative with a two percent drop. The day after Thanksgiving, trading ended three hours earlier than usual.

The market-wide S&P 500 lost 2.27 percent to 4594.62 points. On the Nasdaq, technology stocks did not come under much less pressure either. The Nasdaq 100 selection index
could not escape the downward spiral with a discount of 2.09 percent to 16 025.58 points.

Craig Erlam of broker Oanda observed an “escape to safety in the face of mounting fear of variants”. Experts fear that variant B.1.1.529, discovered in southern Africa, is not only highly contagious due to an unusually large number of mutations, but could also penetrate the protective shield of the vaccines more easily. This raised lockdown worries among investors. “The most worrying thing about the new tribe right now is how little we know about them,” continued Erlam.

Various countries announced entry restrictions for people from South Africa. This is another heavy blow for the entire travel industry, which was also felt on the stock exchange. From airlines to cruise providers to travel portals, there was a slump in prices: The shares of United Airlines
, Carnival und Booking Holdings
lost between 7.2 and 11 percent, for example. The aircraft manufacturer Boeing was one of the biggest losers in the Dow with minus 5.4 percent.

Among the transport service providers, worries about declining travel activity also went steeply downhill, such as losses of up to 4.8 percent at Lyft or Uber showed. The industry also faced speculation about a possible withdrawal of competitor Didi Focus on the New York Stock Exchange. The share certificates listed there fell by 2.8 percent, but less than those of the two competitors.

The uncertainty due to the corona fears was also noticeable on the oil market, as the collapsing oil prices show. The shares of the industry giant Chevron , ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips sagged in the wake of this by 2.3 to 4.5 percent. During the first corona wave in spring 2020, oil prices had already fallen drastically due to the closure of many areas of economic life.

But there were also winners of the current development – and these included some of the well-known “stay-at-home stocks” that were coveted during previous lockdowns, but had a difficult time with investors in recent months during the more relaxed infection situation. Here the papers of the video conference provider Zoom fell in particular and the fitness specialist Peloton with price gains of 5.7 percent each.

Other beneficiaries of the new situation were vaccine manufacturers: Biontech, which is listed in New York Shares shot up a good 14 percent, while Pfizer Stocks rose 6.1 percent. While the worldwide “booster” vaccinations are already keeping the demand for the vaccine high, the renewed fears of investors supported here too.

While the papers of the Biontech competitor Moderna
even increased by almost 21 percent, there was also an outlier in the vaccine universe with negative news. The shares of the gene therapy specialist Ocugen lost 9.2 percent after the US drug authority FDA issued a so-called “clinical hold” for the tests of the Covid vaccine candidate Covaxin. The FDA takes this step, among other things, if it sees a risk to test subjects.

The Euro increased. With a last $ 1.1311 paid, it returned above the $ 1.13 mark. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at 1.1291 (Thursday: 1.1223) dollars. The dollar cost 0.8856 (0.8910) euros.

US Treasury bond prices benefited significantly from investors’ risk aversion. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries rose 1.07 percent to 131.22 points. In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 1.48 percent./tih/he

— By Timo Hausdorf, dpa-AFX —

 ISIN  US2605661048  US6311011026  US78378X1072

AXC0355 2021-11-26/19:47

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