Investors continued to look tense at the interest rate markets because of the recently noticeable inflation concerns. The ongoing vaccination campaign supported the expectation of an early recovery from the Corona crisis. In addition to lavish government aid and loose interest rates, this is also a reason for worries about future inflation, which is currently driving up bond yields. “If this trend holds, the stock market would then be a little less without alternative,” said market observer Jochen Stanzl from CMC Markets.
Other indices ended trading in the red after early gains. The broad S&P 500 lost 0.19 percent to 3906.71 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 0.42 percent to 13,580.78 points. Because tech values have recently been losing importance among investors, he posted the fourth loss day in a row.
On the corporate side, there was some positive news on Friday from Applied Materials, among others. The manufacturer of equipment for the semiconductor industry pleased investors with a robust forecast, whereupon the record high shares rose by 5.3 percent. The order books are currently filling up because customers are ramping up their production due to the current shortage of microchips. As a result, shares in competitor Lam Research rose 3.6 percent.
At Deere, too, things are currently running smoothly: The manufacturer of agricultural and construction machinery has raised its forecast and has thus reacted to the better business of customers in the agricultural sector. The shares shot up by almost ten percent to the next high. Here too, a competitor, Caterpillar, was given wings. Its shares also remained on the hunt for records, they were the front runners in the Dow with a rise of five percent.
As far as the corona crisis is concerned, developments continue to be encouraging, according to analyst Geoff Meacham of Bank of America. The case rates fell measurably in the US, and the vaccination offensive plays a likely role in this, the expert said. Investors have therefore become bolder again for the travel industry, which has been particularly hard hit by the crisis.
The papers of the airlines American, Delta and United, for example, advanced by 2.9 to 6.8 percent. Analyst Sandy Morris from Jefferies Research currently sees bright spots with some catching up to do in travel behavior. The pillars for this are vaccinations, test options and health cards.
There was also news on the question of global vaccine distribution. US President Joe Biden wants to support the Covax vaccination initiative with up to four billion US dollars. In the course of this, it became known that the vaccine researcher Novavax wants to supply the initiative with a billion vaccine doses. Its vaccine is still in the final study phases. Its shares rose 4.8 percent.
The Palantir share, which had recently crashed, was noticeable and has now jumped 15.2 percent. The data analytics specialist had lost almost half of its value between the record at the end of January and the day before. On the market it was said that with the entry of the company ARK Invest by star investor Catherine Wood, the company had now received prominent support.
The euro gained a little on Friday. At the daily high, the common currency was worth 1.2145 US dollars, but with the last paid 1.2117 dollars, the rate fell back somewhat. The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference rate at 1.2139 (Thursday: 1.2084) dollars. The dollar cost 0.8238 (0.8275) euros.
US Treasuries fell again on Friday after stabilizing the day before. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) recently fell by 0.23 percent to 135.49 points. Conversely, the yield on ten-year bonds recently rose to 1.34 percent. At just under 1.36 percent, it reached another high in a year./tih/he
— By Timo Hausdorf, dpa-AFX —
(AWP)
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