The Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) ended a policy-dominated week lower on Friday. While the leading US index was still…
NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) ended a week dominated by monetary policy in the red on Friday. While the leading US index had risen significantly in the middle of the week, skepticism has recently prevailed again. Investors are unsettled because more and more central banks are taking their foot off the accelerator or even starting to slow down. The background is the high and rising inflation in many places, which has long been dismissed as a temporary matter.
The Dow lost 1.48 percent to 35,365.44 points. On a weekly basis, this results in a minus of 1.68 percent. The market-wide S&P 500 fell 1.03 percent on Friday to 4620.64 points. The technology-focused NASDAQ 100 was down 0.39 percent to 15,801.46 points.
The day before, the European Central Bank (ECB) had temporarily increased its APP bond purchase program again because of the risks posed by the new corona variant Omikron. However, the Bank of England surprised on Thursday with a first interest rate hike and the US central bank will initially scale back its asset purchases that support the economy more quickly. As a result, investors were increasingly concerned about the effects of tighter interest rates on the stock market.
The US stock exchanges were also burdened by the great decline on the futures exchanges. Options and futures on individual stocks and indices expired. These days are known for noticeably fluctuating prices.
With a view to the individual values, there was a whole series of price-moving news. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, SAP’s rival (SAP SE) Oracle is about to make the biggest takeover in its history. Accordingly, he could reach for the health software specialist Cerner, whose shares at the top of the S&P 500 skyrocketed by around 13 percent.
The analyst Karl Keirstead from the bank UBS drew a negative conclusion of such a move for the Oracle investors at first glance, even if the probability and the conditions are uncertain. Among other things, the expert fears that such a large takeover could cause the group to shift away from its focus on debt and cash-financed share buyback programs. Oracle’s shares lost more than six percent.
The shares in the logistics company FedEx rose by around five percent. Investors thus rewarded a surprisingly strong quarterly report and the increased profit outlook.
The shares of Tesla rival (Tesla) Rivian (Rivian Automotive), on the other hand, had fallen to their lowest level since the IPO in November and ended up falling by a good ten percent. The company had to admit when it presented its first figures that this year’s production target of 1,200 electric pick-ups would probably be missed by a few hundred cars. Starting up production is more difficult than expected, said company boss Robert Scaringe.
The car manufacturer General Motors (GM) has to look for a new boss for its ambitious Robotaxi subsidiary Cruise. Cruise CEO Dan Ammann is leaving the company. Investors acknowledged the news with a minus of five and a half percent.
In view of the gloomy mood on the stock market, investors withdrew into the world reserve currency, the US dollar, which weighed on the euro accordingly. The shared currency was last traded at $1.1237. The ECB set the reference rate at 1.1330 (Thursday: 1.1336) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.8826 (0.8822) euros. The 10-year US Treasury futures contract rose 0.01 percent to 131.11 points. The return on ten-year government bonds was 1.41 percent./la/men
— By Lutz Alexander, dpa-AFX —
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