Equities New York: Robust economic data ensure recovery | 07/15/22

NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock markets went on a recovery course on Friday thanks to robust economic data. The retail sector increased its sales in June more than expected. Furthermore, sentiment among industrial companies in the state of New York – as measured by the Empire State Index – surprisingly and significantly improved in July. In addition, the upward trend in prices for goods imported into the USA weakened again in June.

The Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) rose 1.84 percent to 31,195.05 points. On a weekly basis, the leading US index is heading for a minus of almost 0.5 percent.

The market-wide S&P 500 rose 1.66 percent on Friday to 3853.28 points. The tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 was up 1.54 percent to 11,949.24 points.

This is the end of a stock market week marked by changing expectations of a tightening of the stock market monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve and concerns about global economic growth. Investors scaled back expectations of how aggressively the Fed will raise interest rates to fight inflation. The bets on one rate hike by one percentage point in July was last revised to 0.75 percentage points.

From the company’s point of view, the beginning of the quarterly reporting season was the focus of interest. Citigroup, among others, published its figures on Friday. The total income increased by a surprisingly strong eleven percent. Overall, the indicators significantly exceeded the analysts’ expectations. Shares soared more than 13 percent at the top of the S&P.

A significantly increased risk provision for bad loans in view of the increased risk of recession caused the profit at the US money house Wells Fargo (Wells FargoCo) to collapse. In the second quarter, the financial group earned almost 50 percent less than a year earlier. Wells Fargo increased provisions for impending loan defaults sharply, which ate at the result. Shares, however, rose a good 6 percent on the wake of Citigroup and thanks to the generally firm market.

Unitedhealth (UnitedHealth) is even more confident for the current year after surprisingly strong business figures for the second quarter. The health insurer increased sales and adjusted earnings per share more significantly than analysts had expected on average. The company only raised its profit target for 2022 in April. This gave the share certificates at the top of the Dow an increase of around five percent.

Walt Disney shares gained 3.6 percent. The streaming service ESPM, which belongs to the entertainment group, wants to increase its monthly subscription price by 43 percent because of expensive sports rights. Apparently, investors were convinced that Disney can push this through on the market despite the currently high inflation in the USA.

Pinterest shares jumped nearly 16 percent. As the “Wall Street Journal” reported, citing people familiar with the matter, the activist financial investor Elliott acquired a stake of more than nine percent, making it the largest shareholder in the ailing social media company./la/he

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