NEW YORK (awp international) – The positive momentum on the US stock exchanges at the start of the week continued on Tuesday thanks to signs of relaxation in the Ukraine war. However, the strong opening gains in early trading crumbled off significantly. A month after Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, there are signs of de-escalation between the two countries. After the most recent negotiations in Istanbul, Russia allegedly wants to significantly reduce its “military activities” near Kyiv and Chernihiv.
The Dow Jones Industrial easily jumped the 35,000 point hurdle right at the start of trading and gained 0.60 percent in early trading to 35,165.37 points. The market-wide S&P 500 advanced by 0.58 percent to 4602.44 points. At the same time, the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose by 1.03 percent to 15,146.27 points and at the start of trading even reached its highest level since the end of January.
In the Ukraine war, “the next few days could be decisive,” as market analyst Craig Erlam from broker Oanda said. “The signs are promising, which is reflected in the markets today.” For example, a Russian negotiator hinted at the possibility of a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents. According to Ukrainian information, the negotiations currently taking place in Turkey should continue in the evening.
Among the large, important individual stocks, Apple in particular is likely to attract attention. The iPhone maker’s shares rose by 0.8 percent to around 177 US dollars and rose for the eleventh day in a row. It has now recovered from the four-month low it reached in mid-March to such an extent that it is heading towards the record high it reached at the beginning of the year. It has already cleared one hurdle, because it briefly regained its highest level since January 5th. The record high of $182.94 a day earlier is currently no more than three and a half percent.
Otherwise, the main focus at the moment is on takeover projects. The health insurer Unitedhealth wants to expand its service business with an acquisition worth billions. The service subsidiary Optum wants to acquire the LHC Group, which specializes in home care, for a price of 170 US dollars per LHC share, as Optum and LHC announced this Tuesday. That corresponds to a total price of almost 5.4 billion dollars. Unitedhealth shares gained 0.6 percent. LHC Group rose 6.6 percent to $167.62.
The market research company Nielsen is changing hands with financial investors. A consortium in which the hedge fund Elliott is also involved wants to take over Nielsen for around 16 billion dollars including debt. Nielsen signed a definitive agreement for a cash purchase price of $28 per share. The company’s shares jumped 20.8 percent to $26.84.
Oil prices, which have continued to fall from their high levels, weighed on oil stocks such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips again. Chevron again held the “red lantern” in the Dow with minus 2.5 percent. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips were among the biggest losers in the S&P 100, falling 2.6 percent and 3.8 percent./ck/he
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