NEW YORK (awp international) – After the strong previous day, Wall Street also posted price gains on Wednesday. In the first hour of trading, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial increased by a further 0.77 percent to 35,182 points. The jump above the high-volume area of 34,800 points, which may serve as a technical support, is a sign of strength, said the charting experts at Index Radar.
However, the mood in New York was dampened by Netflix. The streaming service shocked investors with a drop in customer numbers for the first time in more than ten years in the past quarter. Netflix shares lost more than 37 percent.
In the market-wide S&P 500 and in the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100, where the Netflix shares are listed, development was therefore more restrained. The S&P 500 advanced 0.19 percent to 4,471 points, and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.80 percent to 14,097 points after its very strong previous day.
After the positive data from the US housing market the day before, figures from the real estate market were better than expected on Wednesday. Home sales fell 2.7 percent in March, while analysts had expected a 4.1 percent drop. “The real estate market is beginning to feel the effects of soaring mortgage rates and higher inflation, which are affecting purchasing power,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Nevertheless, houses would be sold quickly and house prices rose significantly.
In view of the disappointing development in the past quarter, Netflix now wants to crack down on users who share their access data and is working on a cheaper version with advertising. However, the authors of the current Bernecker shareholders’ letter believe that the group should already have passed the peak of its success. The competition is catching up and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Netflix to build on past successes. The capital requirement is correspondingly high.
The Netflix bad news also put other stocks in the industry under pressure in the middle of the week. The papers of the entertainment giant Walt Disney, which has its own streaming offers, lost almost five percent. The titles of the audio streaming service Spotify and those of the streaming device provider Roku each fell by eight percent.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) shares were up three percent. The consumer goods group scored with strong quarterly figures and once again raised its target for organic sales growth in the current financial year.
The computer group IBM also exceeded expectations in the past three months, which caused the shares to rise by 6.3 percent. The group benefited from growth in the software and consulting business./ajx/he
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