DOW JONES–Leaded by losses in the technology sector, losses dominated Wall Street on Tuesday. The technology stocks had led the table of winners the day before and now shifted into reverse gear. There was talk of uncertainty in trade because of the recent contradictory headlines about US President-elect Donald Trump’s customs policy. This uncertainty did not encourage people to buy shares, it was said. “A lot is happening with the impending takeover of the Trump administration,” said fixed income strategist Andrew Brenner of NatAlliance Securities.
The Dow Jones index fell 0.4 percent to 42,528 points, the S&P 500 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite fell by 1.1 and 1.9 percent, respectively. According to initial information, there were 933 (Monday 1,212) price winners, 1,881 (1,600) losers and 34 (35) unchanged shares on the Nyse. However, the market was also slowed down by surprisingly positive data, as they did not immediately suggest further interest rate cuts: activity in the US service sector increased more than expected in December. In addition, the number of job vacancies in the US in November was slightly higher than expected. The trade balance for November was in line with expectations. Statements from US Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook fit in with this. She argued the Fed could take a cautious approach to rate cuts in the coming months, even though further cuts would likely ultimately be necessary.
Dollar recovers slightly
The dollar recovered somewhat from its losses the previous day, with the dollar index gaining 0.3 percent. The positive economic data provided support. The strong economic signals reduced the scope for the US Federal Reserve to cut key interest rates. The fact that the dollar has not completely recovered the losses probably indicates an adjustment in positioning after the three-month rally, speculated ING analyst Chris Turner.
On the bond market, lower prices pushed up yields. The positive economic signals do not speak for aggressive interest rate cuts, it was said in the trade.
Oil prices went up. After the previous day’s setback, oil prices continued their recent winning streak. Here too, market players pointed to the positive data, which could indicate increasing demand. Economists also predicted that US oil stocks would fall again. If they are right when the data is released on Wednesday, inventories would have fallen for the seventh week in a row – a bullish price signal.
Gold prices also rose as China added to its gold reserves for the second month in a row, analysts at SP Angel noted. The central bank paused purchases in the six months up to November. The resumption is an encouraging price sign for the precious metal, analysts said.
Chip values are turning negative
Among the individual stocks, Nvidia shares fell by 6.2 percent after the previous day’s strong gains. Traders spoke of profit-taking on Tuesday given the negative stock market environment for technology stocks. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presented the group’s progress in the areas of AI, self-driving cars and robotics at the CES consumer electronics trade fair. However, it was said that there were no really big surprises. The semiconductor sector in the S&P 500 lost 4.3 percent.
Microsoft showed up with a discount of 1.3 percent. The group plans to invest $3 billion in the next two years to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in India. Microsoft plans to invest a total of $80 billion in AI data centers in its current fiscal year ending June 2025, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced in a blog post last Friday.
The shares of vaccine manufacturers showed premiums. The background was the news that a patient in the USA had died of the H5N1 bird flu virus. Biontech shares rose by 5.5 percent and Curevac rose by 5.4 percent – Pfizer rose by 0.9 percent and Moderna by 11.7 percent.
In contrast, Tesla lost 4 percent. The US traffic safety authority NHTSA has targeted around 2.6 million Tesla vehicles because of accidents involving an autonomous driving function.
Aurora Innovation rose by 29.1 percent, the provider of autonomous driving technology is cooperating with Nvidia in the commercial vehicle sector. Getty Images shot up 24.1 percent, the photo agency merged with competitor Shutterstock, whose share price rose by 14.9 percent. Inari Medical rose by 22.2 percent – Stryker (-1.7%) is taking over the medical technician.
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INDEX last +/- % absolute +/- % YTD
DJIA 42,528.36 -0.4% -178.20 -0.0%
S&P 500 5,909.03 -1.1% -66.35 +0.0%
Nasdaq Comp. 19,489.68 -1.9% -375.30 +0.9%
Nasdaq-100 21,173.04 -1.8% -386.46 +0.8%
US bonds
Maturity Yield Bp to VT Yield VT +/-Bp YTD
2 years 4.30 +2.3 4.28 5.8
5 years 4.47 +3.8 4.44 9.4
7 years 4.59 +5.8 4.53 10.6
10 years 4.69 +6.1 4.63 12.3
30 years 4.92 +6.5 4.86 14.1
FOREX last +/- % Tue, 8:15 Mon, 17:01 % YTD
EUR/USD 1.0343 -0.5% 1.0408 1.0391 -0.1%
EUR/JPY 163.39 -0.2% 164.16 163.66 +0.3%
EUR/CHF 0.9407 +0.1% 0.9398 0.9403 +0.3%
EUR/GBP 0.8289 -0.1% 0.8295 0.8309 +0.2%
USD/JPY 157.97 +0.2% 157.68 157.51 +0.4%
GBP/USD 1.2479 -0.3% 1.2549 1.2506 -0.3%
USD/CNH (Offshore) 7.3416 -0.1% 7.3386 7.3528 +0.1%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 96,772.60 -5.2% 101,861.95 102,114.15 +2.2%
CRUDE OIL most recently VT-Settlem. +/-% +/- USD% YTD
WTI/Nymex 74.27 73.56 +1.0% +0.71 +3.6%
Brent/ICE 77.05 76.30 +1.0% +0.75 +3.0%
GAS VT Settlem. +/- EUR
Dutch TTF 47.92 47.21 +1.5% +0.71 -6.6%
METALS last day previous +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (spot) 2,650.20 2,636.20 +0.5% +14.00 +1.0%
Silver (spot) 30.03 29.96 +0.2% +0.07 +4.0%
Platinum (spot) 955.30 932.25 +2.5% +23.05 +5.3%
Copper future 4.16 4.14 +0.4% +0.02 +3.7%
YTD based on the previous day’s closing level
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 07, 2025 4:16 p.m. ET (21:16 GMT)