NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After a dreary week on the stock market, the leading US index Dow Jones Industrial is struggling around the 30,000 point mark on Friday. Most recently, the Dow rose 0.20 percent to 29,988 points. In the meantime, investors’ fears of a recession had pushed the index to its lowest level since the end of 2020.
Due to the immensely high inflation in the USA and fears of a strong economic slowdown, the Dow posted a loss of four and a half percent on a weekly basis.
The market-wide S&P 500 was up half a percent on the last trading day of the week at 3685 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 held up much better with a gain of 1.56 percent to 11,304 points.
The rudder is currently in the hands of the central banks. They are trying to curb high inflation by raising interest rates – with the risk of slowing down the economy. On Wednesday, investors reacted calmly to the US Federal Reserve’s largest rate hike since 1994, at 0.75 percentage points. However, when the Swiss National Bank surprisingly increased its key interest rate significantly on Thursday, the dams in Europe and the USA broke and the stock markets plummeted. However, the central banks must act, as high inflation also harbors economic risks because people then change their consumption patterns.
Shares in the oil and gas sector came under pressure. This tendency had already become apparent in European stock trading. In the US market, Chevron’s losses were sufficient
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips
up to almost nine percent. The shares had already fallen sharply in the past few days. Investors fear that with a pronounced economic downturn, the demand for fossil fuels could also fall.
US Steel, on the other hand, went up , the course rose by two percent. The US steel manufacturer, like some of its competitors, was surprisingly positive about business development in the current quarter, explained analyst Jitendra Pandey from Credit Suisse.
The shares of the biotech company Seagen jumped 16 percent. According to a media report, the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co kept an eye on the company. Other companies should also be interested in Seagen. Merck & Co shares lost one percent./bek/stw
ISIN US2605661048 US6311011026 US78378X1072
AXC0254 2022-06-17/20:10
Copyright dpa-AFX business news GmbH. All rights reserved. Redistribution, republication or permanent storage without the express prior consent of dpa-AFX is not permitted.
–
