NEW YORK (awp international) – The US stock markets posted moderate losses on the penultimate trading day of an extremely successful stock market year. Until shortly before the close of trading, the leading indices were almost consistently positive on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial climbing another record high at 36,679 points in early trading. In the closing minutes, some investors seem to have got cold feet after all.
Ultimately, the Dow fell 0.25 percent to 36,398.08 points. The US leading index is thus heading for an annual profit of just under 12 percent. The S&P 500 fell 0.30 percent on Thursday to 4778.73 points. It had also hit a record high in early trading. The Nasdaq 100 lost 0.38 percent to 16,429.10 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 focus was on the phone call between US President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin on the subject of Ukraine later in the day. 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 more pressure with a loss of 2.4 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 7.1 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 almost half a million vehicles in the United States due to defects that may pose a risk to safety caused the shares to fall by 1.5 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 euro was most recently quoted at US $ 1.1326. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.1334 (Wednesday: 1.1303) dollars.
The dollar had thus cost 0.8823 (0.8847) euros. US Treasuries rose. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note-Future) recently rose 0.17 percent to 130.44 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 1.51 percent./edh/he
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