US Stock Market Wraps Up Profitable Week, Dow Jones Stalls as Investors Look to Federal Reserve Meeting

After nine trading days with profits in a row, the Dow Jones ran out of breath on Friday. After all, the leading US index saved an increase of 0.01 percent to 35,227.69 points across the finish line. A gain of a good two percent was recorded for the stock market week. The day before, the index had reached its highest level since April last year.

So ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting, the bar on the US stock market is set to be significantly higher. “If investors recognize that the key interest rate has peaked, they turn more to investing in shares again,” wrote chief investor Thorsten Weinelt from Commerzbank. With inflation significantly lower recently, the need for the Fed to counteract this with several further interest rate hikes is decreasing.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 0.26 percent to 15,425.67 points. On Thursday, the index slipped by more than two percent after disappointing quarterly reports from Netflix and Tesla. The broad S&P 500 closed Friday up 0.03 percent at 4,536.34 points.

The quarterly earnings season continued on Friday with the numbers from American Express. As the biggest loser in the Dow, shares lost 3.9 percent. The credit card giant’s earnings didn’t rise as much as analysts had expected.

American Express
(WKN: 850226)

The reactions to the quarterly figures were also negative for the SLB papers: The titles of the oil field service provider, formerly known as Schlumberger, lost 2.2 percent. Sales here fell short of expectations.

Schlumberger
(WKN: 853390)

Starting Monday, the dominance of the few giants among the 100 Nasdaq index stocks is to be reduced. In addition to Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Meta are among the “magnificent seven”, which now account for more than half of the index weight. On Friday there could therefore have been final adjustments in the portfolios of index funds or so-called ETFs that replicate the index.

citi US Tech 100 (WKN: CG3AA3)

(with material from dpa-AFX)

2023-07-21 20:41:51


#Closing #bell #York #Dow #Jones #series #holds #Schlumberger #American #Express #disappoint #Nasdaq #adjustment