NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After stable prices in early trading, the stock markets in the USA again had to pay tribute to the conflict over Ukraine on Friday. After the bitter losses of the previous day, the Dow Jones Industrial lost another 0.58 percent to 34,111 points. A loss of 1.8 percent in the leading index is now emerging for the stock market week that is now ending.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 
lost 1.19 percent to 14,003 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell by 0.75 percent to 4347 points.
The mood on the financial markets is likely to be somewhere between hope and fear. On the one hand, diplomacy has not yet failed, the US and Russian foreign ministers plan to meet next week for advice. This contrasts with reports that separatists in the Donbass region of Ukraine want to evacuate women and children to Russia.
Analyst Jim Reid from Deutsche Bank sees the situation in Ukraine as “on a knife’s edge”. The day before, the attitude of the investors was that the conflict could break out imminently. With the talks announced between Russia and the United States, “an olive branch is being handed out,” so to speak.
However, the fact that the US stock exchanges are closed on Monday for a holiday could contribute to the downward pressure. Given that the crisis could escalate at any time, investors could want to limit the risks before the long weekend and liquidate stock positions to be on the safe side.
Looking at the individual values, news about quarterly figures and takeovers are once again making the music. The chemical group Dupont is selling its specialty plastics business to Celanese – and pocketing eleven billion US dollars in cash. After initial gains, Dupont shares turned negative by one percent. The shares of the buyer Celanese
At the close of the Dow, Intel shares were down 5.6 percent to their lowest level since late 2020. The chip giant struck an “almost absurdly optimistic tone” at an analysts’ conference the day before, wrote analyst Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein Research. However, the promised strong growth will cost a lot of money in the coming years, the expert warned.
Shares in agricultural machinery manufacturer Deere & Co lost three percent. Analysts praised its business figures, but at the same time referred to supply problems in the current year.
The streaming service provider Roku is also struggling with problems in the supply of electrical components. Its goals for the current first quarter disappointed the market, the price collapsed by more than a quarter.
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