The US stock markets extended their gains in trading on Thursday and closed significantly firmer. Rather good domestic economic data apparently did not fuel…
NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock markets expanded their gains during trading on Thursday and closed much tighter. Rather good domestic economic data apparently did not fuel any additional concerns about the possible announcement of a tighter USmonetary policy at the forthcoming central bankers’ conference in Jackson Hole.
The leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) posted an increase of 0.98 percent to 33,291.78 points at the end of the trading day. The market-wide S&P 500 finished 1.41 percent higher at 4199.12 points. The technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 ultimately went up 1.75 percent to 13,143.58 points. The three indices had already begun a moderate recovery from the previous downturn by midweek.
The US economy shrank less in the second quarter than initially reported. In addition, the number of initial jobless claims fell surprisingly last week – analysts, on the other hand, had expected an increase. For this purpose, the data from the previous week were revised downwards. The news that China has further increased its economic stimulus measures – by one trillion yuan (146 billion US dollars) – made for good mood.
The central bankers’ conference, which has been eagerly awaited for days, does not begin this Thursday until well after the closing bell on the US stock exchanges. In the run-up to Jackson Hole, representatives of the US Federal Reserve made it clear that they expect monetary policy to be tightened further in the future. This had wiped out the recent rally in equities. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech, which has been announced for Friday, is likely to be checked primarily for indications of the pace of monetary tightening in the USA.
Recent corporate news has had its ups and downs. At the software manufacturer Salesforce, investors had to cope with a price slide of almost three and a half percent. The SAP (SAP SE) competitor lowered its annual target for sales due to the strong US dollar and increased competition in the cloud business and was thus disappointed.
A disappointing outlook for new business caused the shares of the data platform Splunk to drop by twelve percent. They took last place in the Nasdaq 100. Index neighbor Dollar Tree fared little better: The surprisingly good quarterly profit faded into the background in view of reduced sales and earnings targets, so that the shares of the cheap article chain lost a good ten percent.
The implementation of a stock split caused little enthusiasm among Tesla shareholders: the papers fell by 0.4 percent, which was already enough for one of the bottom Nasdaq 100 places. Stock splits are a popular means of making a stock appear cheaper and thus more attractive, especially for small investors.
Peloton (Peloton Interactive), meanwhile, issued a gloomy forecast for the current quarter. Losses piled up and sales fell more than the market had expected in the current quarter, renewed concerns about the fitness company’s comeback plan. The peloton titles then collapsed by over 18 percent. Fashion company Abercrombie & Fitch (AbercrombieFitch) fell 6.5 percent after disappointing quarterly sales.
On the other hand, the initially weak shares of NVIDIA turned positive and gained four percent in the end, although the chip company does not expect a speedy recovery after missed sales expectations.
At the software provider Autodesk, sales and earnings in the past quarter were better than expected, and the shares in the Nasdaq 100 rose by 2.7 percent. Software company Snowflake’s quarterly revenue outlook also beat analyst estimates. Shares jumped 23 percent. The cosmetics group Coty (Coty A) was apparently able to convince investors with its interim report, the papers increased by 10.5 percent.
The share certificates (ADRs) of Chinese companies listed on the US stock exchanges were also in high demand on Thursday. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, regulators in Washington and Beijing have come a little closer to settling the protracted audit dispute over US-listed Chinese companies.
The titles of the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo conquered the top of the Nasdaq 100 with a price increase of more than twelve percent. The online platform operator JD.com (JDcom), the search engine giant Baidu (Baiducom) and the technology company followed in the top places Netease with surcharges of four and a half to a good nine percent. Outside the stock market barometer, the shares of Amazon industry colleague Alibaba gained eight percent.
The euro gave back gains after a temporary jump above parity against the dollar. Most recently, the common currency cost $ 0.9978 in New York trading. The European Central Bank had previously set the reference rate at $0.9970 (Wednesday: $0.9934); the dollar had thus cost 1.0030 (1.0066) euros.
US Treasury bond prices rose slightly after a slow start. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) gained 0.41 percent to 117.73 points. In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 3.03 percent./gl/he
— By Grold Löhle, dpa-AFX —