American stock markets close mainly higher after a hectic day
Wall Street started the day full of optimism, but eventually closed Dow Jones still just a fraction down. The S&P and the Nasdaq remained intact: the S&P closed 0.4 percent higher, tech stock exchange Nasdaq gained 0.7 percent.
Investors responded enthusiastically to the good quarterly figures Bank of America and Morgan Stanley arrived earlier in the day. The concerns about the shutdown of government services were once again pushed into the background. Yet on Wednesday they already entered their third week. An end to the shutdown does not appear to be in sight for the time being.
Bank of America closed 4.4 percent higher, Morgan Stanley recorded a plus of 4.7 percent. Several chip companies also increased in value in response to the quarterly results of chip machine manufacturer ASML. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for example rose 9.4 percent, NXP Semiconductors and Intel received 0.5 percent and 4.3 percent respectively. Nvidia closed 0.1 percent lower.
Tech group Apple won 0.6 percent. The company has unveiled new devices from its Pro line. This concerns an iPad tablet and a MacBook laptop, both of which are equipped with Apple’s new M5 chip. This should make it faster to perform certain tasks in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s statements about the talks with China fueled the positive mood. According to Bessent, President Trump still wants to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. There are also said to have been many ‘high-level contact moments’ between the two countries, despite all the punitive measures on both sides.