Fear of heights kills US scholarships | Financial

The S&P 500 index closed 0.8% lower. The Dow Jones index fell 0.4%. The Nasdaq fell 1.7%.

Until about two hours before the closing bell, there was a predominantly positive atmosphere on Wall Street. Investors reacted cheerfully to President Donald Trump’s intention to lower the capital gains tax. Corona-related hospital admissions in New York and California also fell. However, after seven trading days with a profit for the S&P 500, investors decided to cash in some of their price gains in the last hour of trading.

Initial optimism about the negotiations between Democrats and the White House over a sizeable stimulus package also faded. The leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, put an end to this by saying that there were no new talks. He reiterated that another day has passed in which the deadlock in the trillion support negotiations continues. Trump last weekend already decided to reintroduce aid measures that had expired by decree.

The Dow Jones was a banking group JPMorgan the largest riser with a plus of 3.2%. American Express became worth 1.6% more. The credit card company is in advanced negotiations to acquire fintech company Kabbage, Bloomberg news agency reported. Kabbage, now owned by investors SoftBank and Reverence Capital Partners, should cost around $ 850 million. With Kabbage, which specializes in lending to SMEs, American Express wants to focus more on the business market.

Microsoft (-2.3%) has postponed the launch of the Halo Infinite shooting game on its Xbox game console until next year. The delay is partly due to the global corona pandemic. For Microsoft, the delay is a setback, because the latest game in the Halo series was intended to boost sales of the latest Xbox. That Xbox X will be available from November.

Qualcomm climbed 3.2% after a favorable court ruling for the company. In an appeal, a ban on the chipmaker’s licensing policy was trashed. In the earlier case, the judge ruled that Qualcomm was asking “unreasonably high fees” for the use of its patents. In addition, the chipmaker used access to its products as a leverage in the negotiations. The American company argued in the appeal that the way it issues licenses actually benefits innovation in the industry. According to Qualcomm, other chip makers also simply have access to its technologies.

Manufacturer PPG (+ 4.5%) increased its revenue forecast for the third quarter. The company saw sales increase sharply in July.

Canada Goose was worth 5.2% less. The down jacket maker is facing less activity in its reopened stores. At the same time, the crisis hit the company in the quietest time as down jackets sell better towards the winter period.

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