NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – On Friday, investors in the US stock market digested the horror of high inflation and possibly faster and clearer interest rate hikes to some extent. Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial index recovered after Thursday’s setback by 0.32 percent to 35,354.76 points. On a weekly basis, there is an increase of 0.8 percent.
The S&P 500 index covering the broad market 
remained stable in early business on Friday, up 0.03 percent to 4505.38 points. The Nasdaq 100 technology index turned negative after a friendly start, slipping 0.45 percent to 14,639.22 points, down 0.4 percent for the week.
The day before, with a further increase in prices to 7.5 percent in January, the highest inflation rate in over 40 years had been published. The US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) inflation target is just 2 percent. The monetary watchdogs therefore signaled an initial key interest rate hike in March, despite the still rampant corona pandemic, and in view of the current data there is growing pressure to act. This was also made clear on Thursday by the President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, James Bullard, with his statement that he was in favor of a key interest rate hike of a full percentage point by July.
Corporate news was a bit thinner ahead of the weekend. The sporting goods manufacturer Under Armor scared investors with its business figures. Shares fell 9.3 percent as Nike’s competitor suffered from declining results in the holiday quarter. The increased sales target for the current quarter did not help either.
By contrast, shares in Expedia climbed to a new record high of around $210.50 according to the online travel company’s most recent interim report. Most recently, they came back up 1.5 percent to just over $200. Despite the pandemic, the company managed to jump back into the black. The British bank Barclays and its Swiss competitor Credit Suisse then raised their price targets for the share and confirmed their buy recommendations. Since the beginning of the year, there has already been a price increase of a little more than ten percent – the Nasdaq 100 has lost around ten percent in the same period.
DaVita shares recouped some of the day’s losses and rose 0.9 percent after the dialysis specialist reported earnings and revenue growth last quarter, beating analyst estimates.
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