Indices in this article
NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The prospect of a further extremely loose Monetary policy in the US, investors on Wall Street calmed down on Wednesday. The most important stock indices closed moderately in positive territory, and the leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) and the market-wide S&P 500 even reached record highs.
The Dow was 0.58 percent higher at 33,015.37 points. His record is now just under 33,048 points. The S&P 500 gained 0.29 percent to 3974.12 points. After an initial loss of 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ 100 technology selection index rose 0.38 percent to 13,202.38 points.
The current monetary policy course will be maintained until the Fed’s goals are achieved, the US Federal Reserve announced after its eagerly awaited interest rate decision. The Fed is aiming for full employment and long-term inflation of two percent.
For the current year, the Fed sees the economic development as much more positive than in December. This will also increase inflation more than previously thought. Nevertheless, the US central bankers have not changed their interest rate expectations. Accordingly, they continue to expect key interest rates to remain at zero for the years up to 2023. The Fed is apparently comfortable with the economy running really hot and will not intervene, said one Brazilian.
Portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from QC Partners commented: “The Fed underlines that it regards a stronger price increase this year as temporary. It is doing everything it can to calm the markets and not let the specter of inflation become more prominent.”
At the top of the Dow, the shares of chemical company Dow Inc (Dow) rose 4.5 percent after climbing to a high in the course of trading. The shares of the aircraft manufacturer Boeing and the construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar followed in second and third place with profits of around 3 percent each. They too benefited from the hope that the economy would pick up.
At the end of the Nasdaq 100, the shares of Pinduoduo buckled after the announcement of business figures by more than seven percent. On the e-commerce platform, the growth in the gross volume of goods was disappointing, judged the analysts of the Citigroup bank.
Furthermore, the papers from Uber lost a good four percent. The company’s more than 70,000 drivers in the UK can expect future minimum wages, paid vacation and other benefits. After years of litigation and a defeat before the Supreme Court, the US company announced that it would no longer treat British drivers as independent entrepreneurs, but as employees.
Plug Power’s shares plummeted by almost eight percent. The manufacturer of fuel cells has to correct several annual financial statements due to incorrect postings.
The papers from Onconova Therapeutics went up by around 15 percent. Market observers said that recently, penny stocks from the biotech sector, similar to GameStop, have been mentioned frequently on the online platform Reddit and thus driven upwards.
The euro benefited greatly from the prospect of very low interest rates in the US and was quoted at 1.1984 US dollars after the close of New York. The European Central Bank had previously set the reference rate at 1.1907 (Tuesday: 1.1926) dollars. The dollar cost 0.8398 (0.8385) euros. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note-Future) recently rose by 0.03 percent to 131.95 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds was 1.65 percent./la/fba
— By Lutz Alexander, dpa-AFX —
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