Equities New York: Dow struggles to reach 30,000 mark | 06/17/22

NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After a dreary stock market week, the leading US index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) is fighting for the round mark of 30,000 points 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 technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 held up significantly 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.

The shares came under pressure from the oil– and gas industry. This tendency had already become apparent in European stock trading. In the US market, losses at Chevron, Exxon Mobil (ExxonMobil) and ConocoPhillips ranged as much as nearly 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.

On the other hand, US Steel (United States Steel) went up, the price 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 Biotechcompany Seagen soared by 16 percent. According to a media report, the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co (Merck) has kept an eye on the company. Other companies should also be interested in Seagen. Merck & Co shares lost one percent./bek/stw

–