NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After the recovery rally of the past two days, investors on the US stock exchanges were again more cautious in the middle of the week. The leading index Dow Jones Industrial gave on Wednesday by 0.12 percent moderately to 35,678 points. On the previous two days, the Dow was up more than three percent.
Investors remained cautious despite the rather encouraging news about the Omikron virus variant, wrote analyst Craig Erlam of the Oanda trading company. Much information is still lacking. The recent strong price fluctuations could therefore continue. If prices fall, however, buyers will come into the market, so a rally before Christmas cannot be ruled out.
The market-wide S&P 500 
posted an increase of 0.15 percent to 4694 points on Wednesday. For the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100, which has risen more recently it rose a little further at 0.26 percent to 16,368 points.
The focus was on the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its Mainz partner Biontech. According to both vaccine manufacturers, three doses of their product are necessary for adequate protection against the Omikron variant. The courses could not benefit from this, however: After initial gains, both titles turned into the red. Pfizer recently lost 0.7 percent and Biontech 3.5 percent. In contrast, shares in Biontech competitor Moderna rose by 1.2 percent.
Blackstone’s portfolio fell 3.4 percent. Vice Chairman Hamilton James has sold a package of around 3.7 million Blackstone shares. James recently announced that he would be stepping down in January.
Investors took price gains with the semiconductor industry, which has recently rallied strongly. Intel, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Microchip Technology and NXP Semiconductors lost between one and a half and five percent.
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