NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – US stock markets are expected to have stabilized after the recent decline on the back of renewed interest rate concerns opening Thursday. Investors were now awaiting the release of US producer prices on Friday. The point is to see how effective the US Federal Reserve’s recent tight monetary policy is in curbing inflation and whether it could be eased in the near future, he said.
About three-quarters of an hour before trading began, brokerage IG valued the Dow Jones Industrial about 0.4% higher at 33,734 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is expected to gain about 0.6%. The new data on the US labor market had a positive impact on the indices before the market. Weekly initial jobless claims increased by 4,000 to 230,000, exactly in line with analysts’ expectations.
ExxonMobil shares rose 2.3% in premarket trading after the oil company impressed with its new five-year plan. According to the information, ExxonMobil aims to increase annual investments in low-carbon products to approximately $17 billion by 2027 and expects the plan to double earnings and cash flow potential by 2027 compared to 2019. The company has also announced an expansion of its share buyback program to $50 billion through 2024.
Apple wants to better protect sensitive data from being accessed by hackers and spies in the future. Furthermore, fully encrypted backups of photos, chat histories and other sensitive user data should be possible worldwide in the cloud storage system. This would make the data inaccessible to law enforcement, which is why the US federal police, the FBI, had warned the iPhone company against taking this step. Apple shares rose 1.2% before market.
Ciena’s stock price soared 18% ahead of market. The telecom provider surprised investors with significantly better-than-feared fourth-quarter business results./edh/stw
