NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The prospect of a continued loose US monetary policy on Thursday on the New York stock market in particular pushed the economically sensitive technology stocks up further. The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.04 percent to 13,758.51 points. It is gradually approaching its record high from mid-February.
The broad S&P 500 share index, which also includes many tech stocks, once again reached a record high. Just below that, he finished trading with plus 0.42 percent to 4097.17 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial was up 0.17 percent to 33,503.57 points less clearly, but is also not far from the record it reached on Monday. Significantly, on Thursday in the leading index with Apple, Salesforce, Microsoft and Intel, four technology stocks were among the top five with price increases of up to 1.9 percent.
At their most recent meeting, the representatives of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) confirmed their recently more optimistic view of the US economy. The government’s stimulus packages and loose monetary policy would support consumer spending, according to the minutes of the Fed meeting from March 16-17, published on Wednesday. The Fed members did not hold out the prospect of a change in this monetary policy.
Weak data came from the US job market on Thursday. Last week, the number of initial jobless claims rose to 744,000. Analysts, on the other hand, had expected an average of 680,000 applications. The unexpected increase shows that the labor market still has a long way to go.
There was little price moving news about companies. Visa shares temporarily turned negative after a report of antitrust investigations. But they quickly recovered and in the end gained around 0.7 percent. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported in March that the US Department of Justice was investigating the credit card company on suspicion of possible anti-competitive practices.
Netflix closed 1.4 percent more tightly. The streaming market leader secured the exclusive US rights to sequels to blockbuster series such as “Spider-Man” or “Jumanji” as well as other future productions through a license deal with Sony Pictures.
The beverage company Constellation Brands published quarterly figures. The brewer of Corona beer wants to invest significantly more in the coming year than analysts had expected on average in their estimates. The shares slipped 4.6 percent.
In addition, analyst comments caused movement: The papers of the chip manufacturer NXP fell by 1.4 percent after the investment bank Morgan Stanley had removed it from its buy list. A buy recommendation from JPMorgan for Fedex, on the other hand, made the logistics share price rise by 1.9 percent.
The euro gained after the weak US labor market data. The European common currency cost 1.1916 US dollars after the New York market closed. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at 1.1873 (Wednesday: 1.1884) dollars, so the dollar had cost 0.8423 (0.8414) euros.
The futures contract for ten-year US Treasuries rose 0.30 percent to 132.05 points. The ten-year papers yielded 1.62 percent./ajx/he
By Achim Jüngling, dpa-AFX
–
