NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – At the end of a trading week marked by losses, the US stock exchanges should start slightly recovered on Friday. The focus is on a number of mixed corporate reports on the past quarter. Important sentiment data from US industry and the service sector for October will not be available until shortly after the market opens with the Markit PMI indices.
Around three quarters of an hour before the start of trading, the broker IG estimated the Dow Jones Industrial 0.4 percent higher to 28,462 points. Over the course of the week, this would mean a loss of around half a percent.
Investors are still waiting for positive signals for another corona aid package. The hope remains that a corresponding economic package could be announced before the presidential elections. There was also positive news in the fight against the virus pandemic, because the US drug authority FDA has now approved the drug Remdesivir for the treatment of Covid-19 diseases. In addition, the German company Curevac, listed on the Nasdaq, published positive preclinical data for a vaccine candidate.
Gilead’s shares rose 4.2 percent and CureVac’s 7.4 percent. Gilead benefited from the FDA’s move to approve remdesivir for the lung disease Covid-19. So far, the drug has only had an emergency approval. CureVac reported on the success of a vaccine candidate in a study with mice and hamsters.
The shares of the chip manufacturer Intel, which slumped by 10 percent before the stock market launch, are also likely to be in the focus. Intel missed market expectations in its data center business last quarter.
From the Dow, the shares of AmEx and Goldman Sachs should also attract attention, with the papers of the credit card company American Express falling 3.1 percent before the market and Goldman rising 0.6 percent. AmEx also suffered from lower spending by credit card customers in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the major bank Goldman accepted a billion-dollar fine for its role in the corruption and money laundering affair at the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
The transportation service providers Uber and Lyft each fell a little more than 1 percent before the market. Both suffered a judicial setback in the US state of California and have to fear for their business model. An appeals court ruled Thursday the two companies must abide by a law that requires drivers in the state to be treated as employees rather than self-employed.
Mattel gained 7.5 percent before trading began. Strong “Barbie” and “Hot Wheels” sales brought the toy manufacturer a strong profit jump in the third quarter./ck/mis
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