NEW YORK (awp international) – Further profits pushed the highly regarded S&P 500 to a record high again on Thursday. The market-wide US index closed 0.52 percent higher to 4319.94 points and thus expanded its exceptionally strong half-year profit. The mood of investors is optimistic in view of the generally positive economic data, against the background of the extensive program to stimulate the economy and generally strong corporate results, it said on the market.
The Dow Jones Industrial rose 0.38 percent to 34,633.53 points and is increasingly approaching the 35,000 point hurdle that the world’s best-known index overcame for the first and last time in May. The technology-heavy Nasdaq indices ended the day almost unchanged. The selection index Nasdaq 100 rose by 0.04 percent to 14,560.05 points.
“The US benchmark index remains on the north course and still has some room for improvement before it is technically overheated again,” said Andreas Büchler of Index-Radar on the development since mid-June. Although he remains cautious as to whether the Dow will manage to reach a new peak again soon, he is rather optimistic.
The economic data are still a support for the stock exchanges, even if they were a bit mixed on that day. However, it should have been positive that the weekly initial applications for work aid fell significantly and that the mood in US industry in June was “very good”, despite the noted year-on-year decline, according to Helaba, pointing to “sustained strong growth”. At the same time, however, construction spending surprisingly fell in May, contrary to expectations. The official June labor market report on Friday, which plays an important role in the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), is now being eagerly awaited.
Among the individual stocks in the Dow, the shares of Walgreens fell 7.4 percent from the bottom. The drugstore and pharmacy chain presented business figures and set a higher profit target for the year as a whole. However, some analysts reacted disappointed and cautious. Credit Suisse, for example, expressed skepticism about long-term growth. The same thing happened with the Micron papers. They sagged on the Nasdaq despite better than expected numbers for the third fiscal quarter and an updated outlook by 5.7 percent. Analysts are now questioning whether demand will gradually decline again.
Curevac lost 7.7 percent after disappointing data on the corona vaccine from the Tübingen company. According to the results of the final analysis, the vaccine from Curevac shows an effectiveness of 48 percent against Covid 19 disease across all age groups.
Also in view was the stock exchange novice Didi, whose shares now rose by 16 percent to $ 16.40. The shares of the Chinese Uber rival, which were issued at a price of $ 14, had temporarily shot up to $ 18 the day before, before the subscription profits melted almost completely by the end of trading. Uber gained 0.9 percent and its smaller competitor Lyft gained 2.3 percent.
The US donut chain Krispy Kreme, which belongs to the corporate empire of the German billionaire family Reimann, went public that day, but took significantly less money than hoped. Placed at $ 17 instead of over $ 20 per share, the paper rose to $ 21 that day, which is an increase of around 24 percent.
Oil stocks were also in demand: Chevron rose 1.4 percent and ConocoPhillips rose 3.3 percent. The oil cartel Opec and its partner countries have not yet been able to agree on a strategy to increase production volumes in their ongoing talks. The discussion should continue on Friday. The fact that the daily production might not increase as much as previously forecast drove up oil prices.
The euro exchange rate weakened in US trade. After the common currency in European business temporarily sank to its lowest level in almost three months and then recovered, it fell a little more clearly about an hour before the close of the Wall Street market. Overall, however, the price movements were limited.
Most recently, the euro was quoted at $ 1.1844. The European Central Bank set the reference rate in Frankfurt at 1.1884 (Wednesday: 1.1884) dollars. The dollar cost 0.8415 (0.8415) euros. On the US bond market US government bonds turned into the red on Thursday after initially slight price gains. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note-Future) fell in late trading by 0.04 percent to 132.27 points. The yield on ten-year bonds rose to 1.475 percent./ck/men
— By Claudia Müller, dpa-AFX —
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