NEW YORK (awp international) – The US stock markets posted slight gains on the penultimate trading day of an extremely successful stock market year. Investors are counting on the fact that, despite the increasing number of infections, the Omikron variant of the coronavirus will not have a lasting impact on the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial rose to another record high of 36,679 points in the first few minutes of trading on Thursday, after it had already reached a high in the closing trade the day before.
On Thursday, the Dow was last 0.07 percent higher at 36 514.73 points. The US leading index is thus heading for an annual profit of around 12 percent. The S&P 500 gained 0.15 percent on Thursday to 4800.45 points. Before that, it had also reached a record high. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.35 percent to 16,548.81 points. This looks much better for the technology-heavy index – viewed over the year -: The annual balance sheet so far is up 28 percent.
Even before the start of trading, the numbers for the weekly initial claims for US unemployment benefits were published, which were better than forecast. According to the analyst Jeffrey Halley from the dealer Oanda, they should ensure good mood in the market. In addition, the business climate in the Chicago region – as measured by the local purchasing managers’ index – brightened more strongly than expected in December.
Investors are focusing on the late-day phone call between US President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin on the subject of Ukraine. In the event of further military intervention in Ukraine, Biden threatens the Russian head of state with severe sanctions. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is also seen as a key geopolitical risk in the first few weeks of 2022. A further escalation of the conflict should also put the stock markets in severe turbulence, believes capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from trading house Robomarkets.
Among the individual stocks, the shares of Micron Technology were under a little more pressure with a minus of 1.0 percent. The semiconductor company had warned that the ongoing lockdown in the Chinese metropolis of Xi? An 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. The Micron titles had jumped significantly a few days before Christmas because the company had given an optimistic outlook due to high demand for chips.
Biogen fell 8.0 percent after electronics company Samsung denied a report in the Korea Economic Daily on talks about a takeover of the US biotech company. The day before, after speculation about the takeover, Biogen had jumped 9.5 percent.
The fact that the electric car manufacturer Tesla is recalling just under half a million vehicles in the USA due to defects that might pose a risk to safety left investors cold. The shares fell by just 0.04 percent. The recall affects 356,000 “Model 3” cars built between 2017 and 2020. There are also 119,000 “Model S” vehicles from 2014 to 2021 due to the risk of the bonnet opening unexpectedly.
The shares of the driving service broker Uber and Lyft rose 1.8 percent each after the latest quarterly figures of the Chinese counterparty Didi./edh/he
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