NEW YORK (awp international) – US stock markets have stabilized after their recent losses. Robust data from the labor market and the fact that yields on ten-year government bonds no longer rose so sharply provided calm on Thursday. Recently, among other things, it was feared that significantly rising interest rates could increase the financing costs of growth-oriented technology stocks. In addition, rising interest rates reduce the current value of the high profits that tech companies want to generate in the future.
The leading index Dow Jones Industrial increased by 0.25 percent to 34,583.57 points. The broader S&P 500 was up 0.43 percent to 4500.21 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose after recent severe setbacks by 0.23 percent to 14,531.81 points.
In the meantime, stockbrokers are expecting capital market interest rates to continue to rise due to the current monetary policy. The previous evening, the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Fed had confirmed its tendency to tighten monetary policy quickly. The background to this is the very high and likely further increase in inflation. The Fed wants to quickly melt down its balance sheet, which was bloated in the wake of the Corona crisis, and does not rule out larger interest rate hikes.
The central bank assumes that the US economy is currently so strong that it can tolerate a tighter course. Recent job data appears to confirm the Fed’s view, marketers said. Initial jobless claims fell last week to their lowest level in more than half a century.
Most recently, the government’s monthly labor market reports were also very solid. The recovery of the job market from the corona pandemic is so far advanced that economists are again using the word full employment. However, the tight labor market is also putting pressure on wages and inflation, making a strong monetary policy response more likely.
At the top of the S&P 500, the papers of the PC and printer manufacturer HP jumped almost 15 percent. The holding company of star investor Warren Buffett had entered the computer group on a large scale and is now the largest single shareholder. According to analyst Samik Chatterjee from Bank JPMorgan, the relevance of PCs in the context of the hybrid working world has increased since the beginning of the corona pandemic. In this respect, the profitability prospects for the industry are now higher.
Ford shares, on the other hand, lost almost three percent and thus suffered from a skeptical study by the British investment bank Barclays. Despite the recent sell-off, investors continued to underestimate the risks to the auto sector, analyst Brian Johnson wrote. The expert referred to high inflation and production pressure. In the short term, Ford seems vulnerable to the ongoing chip shortage.
Costco Wholesale shares topped the Nasdaq 100, up about four percent after hitting a record high for the day. In March, the department store operator exceeded market expectations with its like-for-like sales.
The euro closed at $1.0871 on Wall Street. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.0916 (Wednesday: 1.0923) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9161 (0.9155) euros.
On the US bond market, the futures contract for trend-setting ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) fell by 0.12 percent to 120.55 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds was 2.65 percent and was thus close to the three-year high marked the day before./la/zb
— By Lutz Alexander, dpa-AFX —
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