The leading index, the Dow Jones Industrial, advanced 0.21 percent to 27,258.20 points. For the market-wide S&P 500 it went up by 0.22 percent to 3334.95 meters. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.74 percent to 11,207.52 points.
The US labor market has eased a little. Last week, the number of initial jobless claims fell by 249,000 to 1.186 million. Economists had expected an average of 1.4 million applications. However, the number of initial applications is still at a high level.
Meanwhile, the US government wants to keep “untrustworthy” apps from China away from American smartphones on a broad front. “Apps from the People’s Republic of China threaten our privacy, spread computer viruses and spread propaganda and false information,” said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday night. They should be removed from app stores in the US.
This could mean that the dispute between the two countries could enter the next round. Analyst Jim Reid from Deutsche Bank attributed the renewed risk aversion on the stock exchanges to the ongoing tensions between the USA and China. This would have resulted in price losses on the major Asian trading centers. These losses widened on Europe’s stock exchanges.
Regardless, the shares of Facebook and Apple resumed their last interrupted record hunt. Particularly noticeable was Facebook’s price increase of around six percent recently. According to stockbrokers, the online network could benefit from the latest developments around Tiktok. US President Donald Trump had brought up a ban on the popular video app in the USA, pointing out that user data would be at risk. Facebook itself had only presented a Tiktok-like service on Wednesday with Instagram Reels, which can also be used to create short videos.
Apple’s shares recently won 2.5 percent as the best value in the Dow. According to stockbrokers, the most recent increase is due in part to the 4-to-1 share split announced for the end of August – that is, investors get three new shares for each share they hold. The rate then arithmetically drops to a quarter. This makes the papers easier to trade again, which could further increase demand. Apple recently ousted the state-owned Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco as the most valuable listed company in the world.
The shares of Western Digital sagged as the clear bottom in the Nasdaq 100 by more than 16 percent. The manufacturer of hard disk drives and storage products had disappointed with its forecasts for the current quarter. / La / he
(AWP)
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