NEW YORK (awp international) – US stocks fell again Thursday after only a timid stabilization the day before. US economic data presented a mixed picture and gave investors no reason to change their risk aversion. High inflation, future interest rates and economic consequences remain decisive. The nervousness may also have prevailed ahead of Friday’s severe downturn in futures markets.
Growth-sensitive tech stocks, which had recovered somewhat more sharply the day before, were under particular pressure. The Nasdaq 100 selection index, which is characterized by this sector, fell by 1.71% to 11,927.49 points. It dropped below 12,000 points and reached its lowest level since mid-July.
Although the S&P 500 at the market level also fell quite significantly by 1.13% to 3901.35 points, the losses of the Dow Jones Industrial were slightly lower. The Wall Street price barometer lost 0.56% to 30,961.82 points. However, the Dow also had to accept the next low from July later in the day.
According to market watchers, the market currently lacks new incentives ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday. Stockbrokers are firmly expecting a further hike in interest rates of 0.75 percentage points, although some believe a full point is possible due to persistently high inflation. As a result, government bond yields rose across the board, with the policy-sensitive two-year interest rate hitting its highest level since 2007.
Numerous, on the whole, conflicting economic data were released on Thursday. While a New York state regional sentiment indicator surprised positively, the industrial atmosphere in the Philadelphia area disappointed with a significant dip. However, particular attention was paid to retail sales, which increased in August compared to the previous month. However, volatile auto sales are down.
On the corporate side, Adobe investors did not like the software giant’s plans to acquire web design software company Figma. Willingness to pay around $ 20 billion for it triggered a 16.8% price drop. Analysts described the price as high. Kirk Materne of analyst firm Evercore ISI suspected the reason Adobe wanted to avoid the takeover was that Figma would become a strong opponent.
In the wake of Adobe’s slide, software companies, which were also classified as part of the tech sector, were generally at the top of investor sales lists. Salesforce and Microsoft were the Dow’s two biggest losers, down 3.4%.
Banks fared better because they can, for example, benefit from higher interest rates in lending business. In a strong international industrial environment, shares of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan rose up to 1.5% in the Dow. Morgan Stanley analyst Magdalena Stoklosa believes the effect of positive interest has not yet been adequately recognized in an industry study.
With a 5% price hike, Netflix stood out positively on the Nasdaq. The streaming provider’s stocks rose after receiving a positive recommendation from Evercore ISI. Analyst Mark Mahaney sees huge opportunities in the cheapest, ad-funded Netflix subscription, which is expected to start in 2023. More recently, the king of streaming has had to watch the highly competitive market as competition strengthened.
The euro moved around parity with the US dollar on Thursday. In New York trading, the common currency costs $ 0.9995. The European Central Bank has set the reference rate at 0.9992 (Wednesday: 0.9990) dollars. The dollar therefore cost € 1,0008.
US government bonds fell in line with the general rise in yields. While the 10-year Treasury futures contract fell 0.35 percent to 114.56 points, the yield at this term rose to 3.45 percent.
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