NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock exchanges saw a slightly positive start on the Thursday before New Year’s Eve. The broker IG assessed the Dow Jones Industrial just under an hour before the start of trading with plus 0.17 percent to 36,551 points. The leading index is only a few points below its record from the previous day, although trading will probably continue to be thin. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 and the broader S&P 500 are expected to post similar percentage gains on Thursday.
In New York it is the penultimate trading day of an extremely successful year on the stock market. Investors are betting that despite the increasing number of infections, the omicron variant of the corona virus will not have a lasting impact on the economy. This Friday (December 31) the US stock exchanges are open.
The figures for the weekly initial jobless claims were published before the start of trading on Thursday. They turned out better than economists had expected. According to analyst Jeffrey Halley from trader Oanda, they should ensure even more good mood in the market. The Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index follows a few minutes after the start of trading.
Market participants will also pay attention to the phone call between US President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin on the subject of Ukraine, which is scheduled for Thursday. In the event of further military intervention in Ukraine, Biden wants to threaten the Russian head of state with tough sanctions. A senior White House official said Biden would promote a diplomatic solution during the talks, but also stressed his willingness to take harsh punitive measures.
Looking ahead to the first few weeks of 2022, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is considered a key geopolitical risk. It should soon become clear whether the conflict can be settled at the green table or whether further escalation is imminent, wrote capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from the trading company Robomarkets. According to the expert, the latter should also cause severe turbulence on the stock markets.
Semiconductor stocks could come under pressure on the penultimate day of trading in New York. The reason is statements by the Micron Technology group, according to which the ongoing lockdown in the Chinese metropolis Xian could affect its semiconductor production. A trader said the region accounts for around ten percent of the world’s production capacity for so-called NAND chips.
Micron shares are down about 1.5 percent premarket. The day before, they had still risen sharply and scratched the high for the year from April, which is just below the record high from 2000. Stocks jumped sharply a few days before Christmas after Micron gave an optimistic outlook due to high chip demand.
Biogen fell by almost seven percent premarket after the electronics group Samsung now denied a report in the “Korea Economic Daily” on talks about a takeover of the US biotech group. The day before, Biogen had jumped by 9.5 percent after speculation about the takeover.
The shares of the transport service providers Uber and Lyft were listed moderately weaker before the market. They might be worth a look after the latest quarterly figures from Chinese counterparty Didi. Didi reported a net loss of $4.7 billion. The domestic mobility business in particular is said to be responsible for the drastic slump. Compared to the previous quarter, total sales fell by almost 13 percent. In early December, Didi announced that he was planning his delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and would seek a Hong Kong listing in 2022./ajx/jha/
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