NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Recent concerns about a Russian invasion of Ukraine overshadowed trading on the US stock exchanges on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial fell 1.78 percent to 34,312.03 points. At times it slipped to its lowest level in almost three weeks.
The reason is that the US government classifies the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the border area with Ukraine as misinformation and warns against naivety in dealing with Russia. Instead, she assumes that the military presence will continue to expand. Russia reiterated its intention to withdraw its troops from Belarus after the end of the military maneuvers.
The market-wide S&P 500 lost 2.12 percent to 4380.26 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell even further, down 2.96 percent to 14171.74 points.
As if the Ukraine crisis weren’t bad enough, there was little that was uplifting from the economy either: Housing starts in January fell by a good four percent compared to December. The Philly Fed index, which measures business confidence in the Philadelphia area, came in below forecast in February. And the number of initial jobless claims has recently risen faster than economists had forecast.
Looking at the company’s quarterly reports, there were ups and downs. At the network supplier Cisco, business with fiber optic networks and 5G technology was particularly good recently. The share price rose to number two in the Dow Jones Industrial by 2.7 percent.
Walmart was number one on the Dow with a four percent premium. The largest US retailer had an better-than-expected holiday quarter despite global supply chain issues.
Graphics processor maker Nvidia beat analyst consensus forecasts. The current market expectations are even higher, said a broker. The price fell by seven and a half percent and was one of the biggest losers in the Nasdaq 100.
The quarterly figures from the chip manufacturer Applied Materials were also good. However, the shares joined the general price weakness in the semiconductor industry and lost 3.3 percent.
Shares in software vendor and data analyst Palantir Technologies fell nearly 16 percent. Looking at the quarterly figures, the analysts at Citigroup stated that growth would continue to be weak.
Food delivery company Doordash booked a record number of orders in the final quarter of 2021 – despite easing risks related to the corona pandemic. The price soared by almost eleven percent.
The papers of the conglomerate 3M were among the biggest losers in the Dow Jones Industrial with minus 4.5 percent. The investment bank Morgan Stanley had advised to sell.
The euro barely moved in late US FX trading. The common currency was quoted at 1.1361 dollars. The European Central Bank had previously set the reference rate at 1.1370 (Wednesday: 1.1372) dollars. The dollar had thus cost 0.8795 (0.8794) euros.
In view of the Ukraine crisis, investors opted for securities that were considered safe. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) rose by 0.52 percent to 126.47 points. In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 1.97 percent./bek/he
By Benjamin Krieger, dpa-AFX
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