NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Investors’ fear of significantly rising interest rates upset the initially good mood on the New York stock market on Thursday. The leading index Dow Jones Industrial recently fell by 0.15 percent to 35,107 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell by 0.55 percent to 4435 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 lost 0.84 percent to 13,881 points.
Market participants referred to statements by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who spoke about a major rate hike at the next Fed meeting in early May. A 0.50 percentage point hike in interest rates is on the table, Powell said.
There has recently been repeated speculation on the market about a major interest rate move. The central bank would thus tighten its monetary policy even more quickly. The background is the high inflation. But investors worry that tightening too quickly could jeopardize economic growth. According to the Fed’s economic report published the day before, the US economy had recently grown moderately.
Quarterly figures from large US corporations were positively received on Thursday. The electric car manufacturer Tesla, for example, delighted investors with further sales and profit records. The shares initially gained double-digit percentages, most recently the increase was almost six percent.
United Airlines was also able to impress on the market, as the price increase of 11.5 percent showed. Despite deep red figures at the start of the year, United expects business to recover strongly towards the summer. The demand is booming so much that in the current quarter not only a return to the profit zone, but even record sales are to be expected. American Airlines stocks rose 5.5 percent and also gained investor confidence with their outlook.
At AT&T, investors were happy about a price increase of almost four percent after the telecom group had won significantly more new customers in the first quarter than analysts had expected.
The chemical group Dow Inc reported a surge in sales and profits for the past quarter despite higher energy prices. The shares reached a record high and were last listed at the top of the leading index Dow Jones 3.7 percent higher.
Twitter gained 1.2 percent to $47.30. Tech billionaire Elon Musk says he has $46.5 billion in funding to launch a takeover bid for the short message service. The Tesla boss announced last week that he wanted to buy Twitter and delist it. He quoted a price of $54.20 per share./ajx/he
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