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NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) ended an extremely dreary week on the stock market on Friday below the round mark of 30,000 points. The Dow closed 0.13 percent lower at 29,888.78 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 almost five percent on a weekly basis.
The market-wide S&P 500 rose by 0.22 percent to 3674.84 points on the last trading day of the week. Technology stocks fared better, with the NASDAQ 100 recovering by 1.24 percent to 11,265.99 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 raised its key interest rate significantly on Thursday, the dams burst in Europe and the USA and the stock markets plummeted. However, the central banks must act, since high inflation also harbors economic risks because people then change their consumption patterns.
Shares in the oil and gas sectors in particular came under pressure. This tendency had already become apparent in European stock trading. In the US market, losses at Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips ranged as much as 8.5 percent. These shares had already fallen sharply in the past few days. Investors fear that a pronounced economic downturn could also lead to a drop in demand for fossil fuels.
US Steel (United States Steel), on the other hand, was up 1.6 percent. Like some of its competitors, the US steel manufacturer was surprisingly positive about business development in the current quarter, explained analyst Jitendra Pandey from Credit Suisse.
Biotech company Seagen’s shares surged nearly 13 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 fell slightly.
The euro weakened, trading at $1.0490 in late New York trade. The European Central Bank (ECB) had previously set the reference rate at 1.0486 (Thursday: 1.0400) dollars, the dollar had cost 0.9537 (0.9615) euros.
US safe-haven bonds held up well. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) rose by 0.35 percent to 116.22 points. The return on ten-year government bonds was 3.23 percent./bek/stw
— By Benjamin Krieger, dpa-AFX —
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