The best-known Wall Street index, the Dow Jones Industrial, closed after a fluctuating course with plus 0.61 percent to 33,949.41 points, just below the daily high it had just reached. (archive image)
The best-known Wall Street index, the Dow Jones Industrial, closed after a fluctuating course with plus 0.61 percent to 33,949.41 points, just below the daily high it had just reached.
The market-wide S&P 500 gained 1.10 percent to 4060.43 points. The Nasdaq 100 was up 2.00 percent to 12,051.48 points, back to mid-December levels.
“The US economy was extremely robust in the fourth quarter,” said portfolio manager Thomas Altmann of QC Partners, assessing the data from the US Department of Commerce. Although the gross domestic product did not increase as strongly as in the third quarter, it still increased by 2.9 percent extrapolated for the year.
However, some bank economists continue to fear a recession and point to weakening consumer demand in the USA. Investors on the stock exchanges are therefore now continuing to rely on the US Federal Reserve to proceed cautiously with regard to its interest rate policy.
The markets are currently expecting that the Fed will tighten its monetary policy at the next meeting on Wednesday a little more slowly than at the end of 2022, when it reduced the rate of interest rate hikes from 0.75 to 0.50 percentage points. An increase of 0.25 points is currently expected for the beginning of February. Since a recession is considered possible in the course of the year, interest rate cuts are even expected towards the end of the year.
On the company side, the main focus was on Tesla, because the electric car manufacturer had reported record profits in the final quarter of 2022. Tesla shares jumped 11 percent. The increase in the still young year is now around 30 percent. From September to the low at the beginning of the year, however, the course had previously tripled.
Otherwise, the current reporting season has provided mixed signals. IBM shares fell 4.5 percent at the Dow end. The Swiss bank UBS criticized weak margins and a weak outlook for the computer group’s free cash inflow, despite quarterly figures that were slightly better than expected overall.
The papers of the chemical company Dow Inc, which is also listed in the Dow, managed to jump into the black. They increased by 0.4 percent. The quarterly figures were characterized by destocking in the industry and by customers, and profits declined last year. Now costs are to be saved and around 2,000 jobs worldwide are to be cut.
Chevron shares rose 4.9 percent as the oil company plans to distribute billions to its shareholders in light of high profits. From April, shares worth 75 billion US dollars are to be bought back. The quarterly dividend was also increased.
Salesforce shares led the index with a plus of 5.7 percent. As the Bloomberg news agency reported with reference to informed circles, the software group is discussing the possible appointment of new board members under pressure from activist investors.
Apart from a number of other quarterly reports, the shares in the SAP subsidiary Qualtrics also came into focus. They increased by a third because Salesforce’s German competitor is considering a sale.
The euro was trading at $1.0893 at the close on Wall Street. The European Central Bank had previously set the reference rate in Frankfurt at 1.0895 (Wednesday: 1.0878) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9179 (0.9193) euros. On the US bond market, the futures contract for ten-year bonds (T-Note Future) fell by 0.31 percent to 114.78 points. In contrast, the yield on ten-year government bonds rose to 3.5 percent. (SDA)