Equities New York close: recovery stalled | 01/19/22

NEW YORK (awp international) – Even after three weak trading days in a row, the leading US index Dow was unable to recover on Wednesday. After temporary but manageable price gains, the Dow Jones Industrial lost another 0.96 percent to 35,028.65 points. It came under increasing pressure in late trading, slipping to its lowest level in almost a month.

In the past few days, high inflation and the associated expectation of a significantly more restrictive monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve had weighed on the stock exchanges. Yields on the US bond market fell slightly on Wednesday, but this did not relieve the stock markets.

The market-wide S&P 500 closed 0.97 percent down at 4532.76 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, which has come under more pressure recently, fell 1.07 percent to 15,047.84 points, falling to a three-month low.

According to stockbrokers, speculation is increasing that the US Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in March by more than the 0.25 percentage point previously expected. It would tackle persistently high inflation in the United States with a higher interest rate hike.

After a strong quarter, the consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble increased its sales target for the fiscal year running until the end of June. In the second fiscal quarter, sales climbed by six percent. Business with household and health products was the main driver. Procter shares rose 3.4 percent at the top of the Dow.

In the second Corona year, the major insurer UnitedHealth exceeded its profit target, which had been raised several times. Net income attributable to shareholders for 2021 was $17.3 billion, up 12 percent year-over-year. The UnitedHealth papers increased by 0.3 percent.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley did surprisingly well in equities trading in the fourth quarter of 2021. Sales increased by 13 percent here, analysts had hardly expected any change compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The stock gained 1.8 percent.

Unlike other US financial institutions, Bank of America also ended 2021 with a surprisingly good quarter. Thanks to increased income and the reversal of provisions for loan defaults, the institute earned significantly more than a year earlier. The share price increased by 0.4 percent.

Ford shares are down nearly 8 percent. Here, as the day before, investors made price gains after the paper had increased by more than 70 percent since the beginning of October.

The euro recovered a bit from yesterday’s losses. The shared currency was trading at $1.1345 in late US currency trading. The European Central Bank had previously set the reference rate at 1.1345 (Tuesday: 1.1367) dollars. The dollar had thus cost 0.8815 (0.8797) euros.

In the US bond market, the yield on ten-year bonds initially marked another high in more than a decade, but then eased somewhat. Most recently it was 1.85 percent. In contrast, the futures contract on ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) rose by 0.20 percent to 127.62 points./bek/nas

— By Benjamin Krieger, dpa-AFX —

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