NEW YORK (awp international) – After the high price gains during the Fed meeting the day before, the US stock exchanges ran out of air in early trading on Thursday. After all, the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index had posted its highest daily gain since November 2020. And there is little good news from the economy: the US economy shrank again in the spring and fell into a so-called “technical recession”.
The Dow Jones Industrial was most recently down 0.53 percent at 32,028.53 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell by 0.59 to 3999.59 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 1.10 percent to 12,461.15 points after jumping more than four percent Wednesday.
Economic output (GDP) in the United States fell by 0.9 percent on an annualized basis in the second quarter. Since the US economy shrank by an annualized 1.6 percent in the first quarter, the definition of a technical recession is met. This is what economists talk about when economic output falls two quarters in a row.
With regard to the individual values, the quarterly reports and forecasts of the companies continue to determine what is happening. Facebook group Meta suffered its first drop in sales. The development is tantamount to the end of an era: Since the IPO in 2012, things have only gone up rapidly. Meta shares lost almost eight percent.
In view of the weak economy, the chip manufacturer Qualcomm expects lower consumer spending, which should also affect many products with semiconductors. These cautious statements broke the stock a minus of six percent.
The papers of the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Merck & Co also got under the wheels. The former lost four percent and the latter a good three percent. Pfizer is struggling with unfavorable exchange rates, and traders at Merck & Co spoke of taking profits after the price had risen by almost 20 percent since the beginning of the year.
Ford and Harley Davidson shares fared better, with premiums of three and six percent, respectively. The automaker far exceeded expectations in terms of earnings in the second quarter. Despite problems in the supply chain, the legendary motorcycle manufacturer was much more productive in the second quarter than expected on the market.
Southwest Airlines continues to face high costs while at the same time complaining about delayed deliveries of aircraft by Boeing. The share price then slipped by 8.5 percent. Meanwhile, Jetblue Airways is acquiring low-cost airline Spirit Airlines for at least $3.8 billion in cash. While Jetblue fell 2.6 percent, Spirit Airlines gained 3.7 percent./bek/he
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