NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock exchanges continued to recover from their recent setback on Monday thanks to positive news from China. However, the price gains shrank in the course of trading.
Most recently, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) rose by 0.35 percent to 34,465.40 points. On Friday it had slipped to its lowest level in six weeks in trading. The market-wide S&P 500 rose 0.23 percent to 4416.01 points on Monday. On the Nasdaq technology exchange, the NASDAQ 100 selection index gained 0.17 percent to 14,966.87 points.
The government in Beijing has taken further steps to support the recently weak Chinese stock markets. The Ministry of Finance announced on Monday night that the stamp duty on stock transactions would be halved. The country’s stock exchange supervisors also announced that they would restrict the sale of shares by major shareholders as well as refinancing options for unprofitable companies, among other things. Beijing also wants to step on the brakes when it comes to IPOs – but no specific plans were mentioned here.
Investors in the US are waiting for the domestic jobs report due this Friday. The employment situation is of particular relevance for the monetary policy decisions of the central bank. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell left the door open for further interest rate hikes at the international central bankers’ meeting in Jackson Hole, but made this dependent on the further development of the economic indicators.
The share certificates (ADR) of some Chinese companies listed in New York reacted positively at the beginning of the week, but not euphorically to the news from their home country. Stocks of online giant Alibaba and search engine operator Baidu (Baiducom) rose 2.4 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively, while stocks of internet company JD.com (JDcom) gained 2.2 percent.
Xpeng shareholders were pleased about a price premium of 3.8 percent. The Chinese electric car manufacturer is strengthening itself with the acquisition of the car development unit of the travel agency Didi (DiDi Global A), whose shares increased by 2.8 percent. The Volkswagen (Volkswagen (VW) vz) partner is paying a good 5.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (739 million US dollars) in shares for the deal. Didi will thus receive around 3.25 percent of the shares in Xpeng.
At five percent, the price increase was even greater for the Dow leader 3M. A report on a possibly surprisingly light-hearted comparison of the conglomerate in a dispute over allegedly defective earplugs gave investors access here. With the 5.5 billion dollars mentioned in the report, the sum could be significantly lower than feared by analysts. RBC expert Deane Dray had seen the range at up to ten billion dollars.
Industry peer Danaher’s shares rose 1.8 percent after it announced its acquisition of British company Abcam. The Americans thus made the race in advertising for the supplier for the life sciences industry, in which competitors were also interested. The total value of the transaction is approximately $5.7 billion./gl/he