NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Despite the worsening Middle East conflict, the US stock markets are likely to open the week with a positive trend. Stock markets were now calmer after last week’s rush for safe investment havens, and investors were cautiously following diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict between Israel and Hamas, trading sources said.
The broker IG estimated the leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) with a plus of 0.6 percent to 33,878 points three quarters of an hour before the start of the stock exchange. The technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 is expected to be around 0.4 percent higher on Monday.
“Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East remain the market’s main theme,” said Luke Hickmore, investment director at Abrdn Investment Management. “It may seem calmer now, but if the war spreads to other parts of the region, that will mean more pressure on oil prices and more uncertainty for the market to deal with. That will be an important factor here.”
Among the individual stocks, Pfizer shares are likely to be the focus of interest following the pharmaceutical company’s reduced annual targets. In pre-market US trading, the pharmaceutical company’s shares temporarily fell by more than 3 percent, but were recently only down 0.2 percent. Due to the collapse in Covid revenues, Pfizer cut its sales forecast for the current year. Pfizer also took a $5.5 billion write-down on inventory related to lower-than-expected demand for Covid drugs.
Jefferies expert Akash Tewari advises investors to get involved with Pfizer right now. His price target of $39 signals a good 21 percent potential compared to Friday’s close on Wall Street. Thanks to the savings, the earnings targets for 2024/25 are more than achievable, according to the expert. He also sees some attractive price drivers coming, so that the recently weak stocks are likely to outpace the market.
As a result of the Pfizer news, the stocks of the corona vaccine manufacturers Biontech (BioNTech (ADRs)) and Moderna fell by 5.0 and 4.5 percent respectively before the trading session. Biontech is Pfizer’s partner for the Comirnaty corona vaccine. Biontech announced that it would examine the possible impact of Pfizer’s write-offs and other charges related to Comirnaty on its own group’s financial results.
The large US pharmacy chain Rite-Aid wants to reorganize itself in insolvency proceedings under the pressure of hundreds of lawsuits. The allegation in the lawsuits is that Rite-Aid has had illegal prescriptions for painkillers filled in numerous cases. On Monday night, Rite-Aid filed for proceedings under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code with creditor protection. At the same time, the company received financing of $3.45 billion for continued operations during the bankruptcy process. The share collapsed by around 17 percent premarket./edh/tih
2023-10-16 13:03:39
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