NEW YORK (awp international) – The recovery rally on the US stock markets that has been underway since the end of October came to a halt on Tuesday. In the trading week that was shortened due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, investors became more cautious again. In the past three weeks, the most important US indices had benefited from hopes that interest rates in the USA had reached their peak. However, there were no signals of this in the minutes of the US Federal Reserve Bank of the most recent interest rate meeting, which were published later in trading.
According to traders, there was also reluctance in view of Nvidia’s eagerly awaited quarterly report. Given the euphoria around the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), the graphics card specialist is very much in focus because it is considered a pioneer in the development of AI chips.
The leading index Dow Jones Industrial ended the day with a small minus of 0.18 percent to 35,088.29 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell by 0.20 percent to 4,538.19 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100, which had reached its highest level in 22 months the day before, fell by 0.58 percent to 15,933.62 points.
Neither the real estate data released in early trading was particularly moving, nor were the Fed minutes. In October, existing home sales fell far more than expected compared to September. No big news emerged from the central bank’s minutes from the last interest rate meeting. It was reiterated that further tightening may be necessary if progress on inflation is insufficient. No further interest rate increases are currently expected, but rather the first cuts will be made next year in view of an economic slowdown.
Before Nvidia presented figures, the share price fell by 0.9 percent. Investors on the market kept a low profile, especially since the stock had only climbed to a new record high on Monday. At minus 1.2 percent, the shares of the software giant and active AI co-mixer Microsoft were also weak. They also reached a record high at the start of the week.
While the shares of the video conferencing service Zoom closed almost unchanged after strong quarterly figures and increased annual targets, Agilent jumped 8.7 percent. The medical technology group also surprised positively with its results in the past quarter. Analysts also see signs of demand stabilization in the outlook for 2024, which is weaker than expected.
Trimmed sales forecasts due to demand-related concerns put some pressure on shares of Best Buy and Lowe’s. The consumer electronics retailer’s shares lost 0.7 percent, while those of the hardware store chain Lowe’s fell by 3.1 percent. In contrast, the shares of the clothing retailer Burlington Stores jumped by almost 21 percent after a better-than-expected profit in the third quarter and a “solid start to the month of November”.
The shares of the semiconductor company Broadcom recorded a price loss of 1.4 percent. China sets conditions for approving VMware takeover.
The euro fell and was trading at $1.0912 at the close on Wall Street. The European Central Bank set the reference rate in Frankfurt in the afternoon at 1.0955 (Monday: 1.0928) dollars. The dollar therefore cost 0.9128 (0.9150) euros. On the US bond market, the futures contract for ten-year bonds (T-Note Future) recently rose by 0.14 percent to 109.00 points. The yield fell to 4.402 percent./ck/ngu
— By Claudia Müller, dpa-AFX —
2023-11-21 21:39:03
#York #Stocks #Small #Fed #Minutes #Unsurprising
