NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After the solid gains on Wednesday, the US stock markets are expected to open only slightly on Thursday. The broker IG estimated the Dow Jones Industrial a good half an hour before the start of trading 0.08 percent lower at 34 111 points.
Mostly positive earnings prospects for US companies are offset by fears that Covid 19 infections are still high worldwide, said a stockbroker. “Concerns are growing that a flare-up of coronavirus cases could derail the global growth boom after investors recently stocked up in stocks in anticipation of a recovering global economy.”
Current labor market data had hardly any impact on the pre-market development. The number of weekly initial applications for US unemployment benefits has recently fallen again. Analysts, however, had expected an increase.
Among the individual stocks, the shares of AT&T could be the focus of interest. The telecommunications company announced significantly higher profits and growth in operating income for the first quarter. The results exceeded the average analyst forecasts. The AT&T shares jumped 4.6 percent before the IPO.
The US chemical company Dow started the new year with momentum thanks to a significant increase in demand. The plastics and packaging manufacturer was able to sell significantly more in the first quarter compared to the previous year and at the same time benefited from rising prices. Sales and earnings exceeded average market expectations. The Dow shares still fell in pre-market trading by 0.2 percent.
The corona crisis kept American Airlines deep in the red at the beginning of the year. In the three months to the end of March, the US carrier made a net loss of $ 1.3 billion. Without government aid, the minus would have been significantly higher. In the previous quarters, however, things went much worse. There is now increasing hope that business will get off to a better start. The airline’s shares rose by 3.1 percent in the pre-market period.
Biogen’s shares advanced by 0.8 percent before the IPO. According to its quarterly report, the Biopharma Group increased its profit and sales outlook for the full year 2021./edh/jha/
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