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NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock exchanges continued their recent recovery on Friday. After the price slide, especially from the end of April to mid-May, bargain hunters grabbed it again and used the supposedly cheap prices to get started, said stockbrokers. In addition, over the course of the week, investors had the minutes of the US Federal Reserve for the most recent interest rate meeting as evidence of only a gradual tightening of the monetary policy to combat high inflation. The leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) achieved the largest percentage weekly gain since November 2020 with a plus of 6.24 percent.
On Friday, the Dow started the long weekend up 1.76 percent to 33,212.96 points after falling to its lowest level in more than a year seven days ago. The US stock market will remain closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.
The market-wide S&P 500 gained 2.47 percent on Friday to 4158.24 points. The tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 rose 3.30 percent to 12,681.42 points.
The latest US economic data meanwhile did not provide a uniform picture. On the one hand, consumer spending increased significantly in April. Investors, who were plagued by inflation concerns, were also relieved to learn that price developments had weakened somewhat.
On the other hand, according to the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment deteriorated more than expected in May. “This recent decline is largely due to continued negative sentiment on current home and durable goods buying conditions,” commented Joanne Hsu, director of the survey.
Looking at the individual stocks, investors reacted with fright at the start of trading to a drastically lowered profit forecast by the clothing retailer Gap. The shares had initially collapsed by more than 14 percent, but recovered quickly in the friendly environment and were up a good four percent in the end.
Among the few losers in the Nasdaq 100, the papers of the software provider Workday (Workday A) fell by 5.6 percent at the end of the index. Analysts justified this with orders postponed by customers in view of the economically uncertain situation.
Dell Technologies’ shares soared 12.9 percent. The tech company increased revenue by a sixth last quarter thanks to strong demand for PCs. Ulta Beauty’s shares were up 12.5 percent after the cosmetics maker raised its annual sales and profit targets. This was enough for the number one spot in the S&P 500.
The euro remained on the rise and was last seen at $1.0728. The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference rate at 1.0722 (Thursday: 1.0697) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9327 (0.9348) euros. Once again, the common currency was affected by the expected turnaround in interest rates Eurozone supported. In view of the high inflation, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel expects the ECB to raise interest rates several times this year.
On the bond market, the futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) fell by 0.04 percent to 120.55 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds was 2.74 percent./la/he
— By Lutz Alexander, dpa-AFX —
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