Wall Street is finally calming down after recession fears gripped investors for days. On Friday, the important stock market indicators in New York entered the weekend with solid gains. Much bad news has now been “priced in” and there is “reason for optimism” again, noted an expert from Nationwide.
–
In the past period, concerns about high inflation and the increasing risk of a recession have predominated. The financial markets also had to accept that the Federal Reserve seems to be continuing its policy of aggressive rate hikes for the time being, which is not good news for stock valuations.
–
But all this fell into the background on Friday. The leading Dow Jones index finished 2.2 percent higher at 31,288.26 points. The broad S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent to 3863.16 points and tech gauge Nasdaq gained 1.8 percent to 11,452.42 points.
–
There were also some bright spots when it comes to macroeconomic data. For example, retail sales in the United States rose more strongly than expected in June. Furthermore, wheat prices on the commodities market in Chicago fell sharply, erasing the earlier price jump caused by the Ukraine war. And there was a hopeful message from Saudi Arabia where President Joe Biden said he expected more production increases from the major oil country after a meeting with Saudi leaders.
–
While US bank stocks were still out of favor on Thursday, prices rose again on Friday. Wells Fargo rose more than 6 percent after a well-received trade update, Citigroup was even up 13 percent. The latter bank not only performed better than expected but is also exploring a range of ways to exit Russia.
–
Other companies that came up with figures included investor BlackRock and health insurer United Health. BlackRock recorded a much lower profit. The stock nevertheless gained 2 percent. UnitedHealth raised its expectations for the current year and was pushed over 5 percent by investors.
–
Pinterest further gained more than 16 percent in market capitalization after reports that activist investor Elliot Management took a major stake in the company behind the digital photo bulletin board.
–
The euro was worth 1.0083 dollars against 1.0094 dollars at the European close earlier in the day. The price of a barrel of American oil climbed almost 2 percent to $ 97.61. Brent oil also rose about 2 percent, at $110.09 a barrel.
–
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
–
–
:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/JXY3K4SNLVHSDALH56VYA7ZHXQ.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Covid-19: Find out what brand of vaccine and how many doses you get according to your age")