NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Concerns about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine are likely to overshadow the start of trading on the US stock exchanges on Thursday. The trigger is that the US government classifies the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the border area with Ukraine announced by Moscow as false information and warns against naivety in dealing with Russia. Instead, she assumes that the military presence will continue to expand. Meanwhile, Russia reiterated that it would withdraw its troops from Belarus after the end of the military maneuvers.
The broker IG assessed the Dow Jones Industrial just under an hour before the start of trading 0.4 percent lower to 34,801 points. IG 0.5 expects the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 to fall at 14,525 points.
Looking at the chart of the Wall Street Index Dow, Andreas Büchler from Index-Radar warns of a slump below the most recent interim low of around 34,300 points at the beginning of the week. Below that, the way would be clear “at least back to the 33,300 mark,” he said.
The economic data published before the start of trading was weaker than expected. The Philly Fed index, which measures business confidence in the Philadelphia area, came in below forecast in February and housing starts in January also fell more than expected. The number of weekly initial jobless claims also rose to 248,000, while economists had expected 218,000 initial claims.
On the company side, the reporting season is still in full swing. The network equipment supplier Cisco increased sales and profits in the past quarter. These key indicators and the outlook for the current quarter were better than analysts had expected. The stock was up around 3 percent pre-market.
Applied Materials, the largest machine builder for the chip industry, also presented better-than-expected figures for its first fiscal quarter 2021/22. However, expected second-quarter sales are slightly below consensus, a trader said. The shares rose by around two and a half percent before the market.
In contrast, the shares of Nvidia lost a little more than two percent before the start of trading. The need for chips for artificial intelligence and graphics cards drove the business of the semiconductor specialist to a record high in the fourth quarter of 2021/22, but the share is already very highly valued.
The Canadian nutria could also come into focus. In the event of prolonged sanctions against Belarus, Nutrien could ramp up fertilizer production, the company said when presenting its annual figures. Due to the strong demand from farmers and bottlenecks caused by sanctions, the company is expecting record sales of potash fertilizers in the current year. The papers rose by around two and a half percent before the market.
A downgrade of 3M shares by the US bank Morgan Stanley to “underweight” and the price target cut from 185 to 150 US dollars put the shares of the conglomerate on. They lost just over two percent before the start of trading./ck/mis
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