NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – A disappointing labor market report helped the US stock exchanges on Friday. After initially the technology stocks, which had been rather weak recently, had benefited, their price gains and those of the standard value indices converged – the latter made it to record highs again. According to experts, an imminent tightening of US monetary policy is off the table for now. Higher interest rates make stocks less attractive than fixed-income investments such as bonds. Apparently, this outweighed concerns for investors that the world’s largest economy could stutter as the engine of the economy.
On the Nasdaq technology exchange, the Nasdaq 100 selection index gained 0.78 percent to 13,719.63 points. On a weekly basis, however, it fell by around 1 percent. The leading index Dow Jones Industrial reached a record level on Friday for the third day in a row, closing 0.66 percent more firmly at 34,777.76 points, bringing the weekly increase to just under 2.7 percent. The market-wide S&P 500 ultimately gained 0.74 percent to 4232.60 meters and also set a new record.
The increase in jobs in the US economy remained well below expectations in April. In addition, the development in the previous month was subsequently corrected downwards. The unemployment rate also rose slightly in April, while analysts had expected a decline. After all, hourly wages increased significantly – stagnation was expected here.
Analysts were disappointed with the figures, but commented cautiously. It is difficult to assess how much weight the report should be given at a time when many other indicators were pointing to a rapid economic recovery, according to the analysis house Capital Economics. Meanwhile, Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank, expects “an even more significant increase in new positions” in the coming months. The US economy is growing rapidly now as the national vaccination program is taking effect and the government is providing significant funding.
Even before the labor market report, the prospect of an economic improvement had pushed the copper price to a record high. The supply can hardly keep up with the rapidly increasing demand, especially from China. The shares of the copper and gold producer Freeport-McMoRan gained a good four and a half percent to 43.97 US dollars. In doing so, they continued their year-long high-altitude flight and were as expensive as they were in 2012.
The roller coaster ride on the papers of the corona vaccine manufacturers continued. On Friday, they benefited from the federal government’s stance against a patent release for Covid-19 vaccines: The depository receipts listed in New York for the German manufacturers Biontech and Curevac recovered by almost nine and a half and almost seven percent, respectively. The shares of the US competitor Moderna, which were also weakening recently, gained 1.7 percent. In the fight to contain the pandemic worldwide, the US government recently pleaded for the suspension of patents for the corona vaccines, as a result of which the papers of the vaccine producers had suffered severely.
Nike shares benefited from good quarterly figures from German competitor Adidas: With a price increase of over three percent, the world’s largest sporting goods manufacturer topped the list of winners in the Dow.
Nikola shareholders enjoyed a price jump of more than 13 percent to $ 11.50 before the weekend. The loss of the US electric truck manufacturer in the first quarter was less than expected. However, the papers are still miles away from the record value of just under $ 94, which is not yet a year old.
The up-and-coming fitness equipment supplier Peloton is expecting manageable financial consequences from the widespread recall of its treadmills. In the current quarter sales will decrease by a total of 165 million dollars, according to CFO Jill Woodworth. However, this only gave a temporary boost to the last hit stocks: They closed almost unchanged
Beyond Meat’s first quarter sales missed analysts’ expectations. Restaurants and stadiums were closed because of the pandemic, which put a strain on the meat substitute producer. The shares lost seven percent.
The euro benefited significantly from the weak US labor market report: In New York, the common currency rose to $ 1.2167. The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference rate at 1.2059 (Thursday: 1.2060) US dollars and the dollar cost 0.8293 (0.8292) euros.
US government bonds were also supported by the job data: The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) rose 0.14 percent to 132.77 points. The yield on ten-year bonds fell accordingly to 1.57 percent./gl/he
— By Gerold Löhle, dpa-AFX —
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