NEW YORK (awp international) – The first day of trading in 2022 brought profits to the US stock exchanges. However, the start on Monday was a bit bumpy. At times the plus crumbled completely in early trading and the most important indices briefly plunged into the red before moving up again. Investors initially focused on Tesla after strong delivery figures in the fourth quarter. Later on, Apple also attracted more attention, because the market value of the iPhone manufacturer jumped the three trillion US dollar mark for the first time.
At the close of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial posted an increase of 0.68 percent to 36,585.06 points and closed just below its high for the day. The best-known Wall Street index is now less than 100 points to reach the record high of just under 36,680 points, which it climbed on the penultimate trading day of 2021.
The S&P 500, which had also reached a record last Thursday, rose 0.64 percent to 4796.56 points. The Nasdaq 100, which is mainly equipped with technology stocks, gained 1.11 percent to 16,501.77 points.
A market observer referred to the thin trading volumes in view of the initial ups and downs on the US stock exchanges. In addition, they would have had a very good run in the past year, which is why things will probably not go up so easily in 2022. While the outlook for equities is still good, monetary policy must now be monitored more closely, he said.
Because: The US Federal Reserve announced in December that it would exit its extremely loose monetary policy more quickly in view of the high inflation. The billion dollar purchases of securities such as government bonds are to be scaled back more quickly and the key interest rate is to be raised again soon. The US central bankers expect a total of three interest rate hikes of 0.25 percentage points each in 2022. “It will be the first rate hike since 2018, and that will have an impact on the stock markets,” said the market watcher.
Tesla shares were among the favorites in the US market with a plus of 13.5 percent, as the electric car manufacturer reported record-high delivery figures. In the fourth quarter, Tesla had delivered over 300,000 vehicles to customers, far more than had been expected on the market. In the whole of 2021, the company will deliver a good 936,000 vehicles. That is an increase of almost 90 percent compared to 2020.
In the Dow, Apple was also the main focus. With an increase of 3.0 percent to $ 182.88 at times, the share not only reached a record high, but the iPhone manufacturer was also the first company in the world to crack the $ 3 trillion market value. So it didn’t even take a year and a half for Apple’s market capitalization to jump another trillion.
The highest percentage of the day’s winners in the Dow, however, were the shares of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, the aircraft manufacturer Boeing and the chip manufacturer Intel, all of which rose by 3.3 percent.
The papers of the sporting goods manufacturer Nike, on the other hand, were among the weakest values with minus 1.2 percent. Only the shares of the DIY chain Home Depot were even weaker at minus 1.5 percent.
Moderna’s paper was one of the biggest losers on the Nasdaq 100, falling 7.5 percent. Biontech sagged on the Nasdaq by 10.1 percent. Pfizer’s drug Paxlovid against Covid-19 is about to be approved in Germany. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency approval for paxlovid shortly before Christmas.
The euro, which came under significant pressure shortly before the stock market launch in New York and soon fell below $ 1.13, was trading at $ 1.1296 at the close of Wall Street. The European Central Bank set the reference rate in Frankfurt at 1.1355 (Friday: 1.1326) dollars. The dollar cost 0.8807 (0.8829) euros.
On the US bond market, US government bonds also increased their losses in the course of trading. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note-Future) fell by 1.03 percent to 129.44 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds rose to 1.635 percent./ck/he
— By Claudia Müller, dpa-AFX —
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