NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Wall Street was inconsistent on Friday. The Dow Jones index fell 1.1 percent. The S&P 500 fell by 0.5 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed 0.4 percent higher, but well below its daily high. The current development in the war between Israel and Hamas led to investors withdrawing from stocks, especially since the weekend was approaching and investors cannot react to current events until Monday at the earliest. According to media reports, the Israeli army intensified its attacks on Gaza; the ground forces expanded their activity in the Gaza Strip.
The Nasdaq indices were supported by well-received figures from technology giants Amazon and Intel. There was also strong data from China. Industrial profits there rose by 11.9 percent in September compared to the previous year. “A combination of solid after-hours US tech earnings last night and weaker-than-expected industrial earnings in China this morning are helping to lift global risk sentiment,” said Krupa Patel, head of international markets monitoring at JP Morgan.
On the Nyse, the 750 (Thursday: 1,508) price winners faced 2,138 (1,355) losers. 78 (107) titles closed unchanged.
The eagerly awaited PCE price index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, provided little impetus. The core rate was exactly as expected. While the Fed is not expected to change interest rates next week, participants will pay closer attention to accompanying commentary. They hope to gain information about a possible one Interest rate increase in December.
After bonds had risen massively the day before due to opportunity purchases and weaker job data, they now only rose moderately.
Ford weak
On the stock market, Amazon’s shares improved by 6.8 percent. The online retailer recorded a strong jump in profits in the third quarter, although cloud sales remained slightly below expectations. Sales rose 13 percent, exceeding analysts’ consensus estimates.
Chip manufacturer Intel exceeded market expectations in the third quarter despite a decline in sales and profits. Sales of $14.2 billion were 8 percent below the same period last year, but above the Factset consensus estimate of $13.6 billion. The forecasts for sales and profits in the current fourth quarter also exceeded expectations. The share climbed 9.3 percent.
However, there were also shadows in the reporting season: Ford shares lost 12.2 percent. The US automaker posted a net profit of $1.2 billion in the third quarter, after posting a loss in the same period last year, but withdrew its full-year forecast citing the impact of the UAW strike.
The oil giant Chevron (-6.7%) earned significantly less than expected in the third quarter. Competitor Exxon Mobile’s profit was less than half of last year’s quarterly record, but rose 15 percent compared to the previous quarter. The stock gave up initial gains and fell 1.9 percent.
JPM fell by 3.6 percent. CEO Jamie Dimon wants to sell 1 million of his 8.6 million shares in the bank.
The dollar fell slightly, with the dollar index falling by 0.1 percent. The greenback has slipped back below the 150 mark against the yen. The dollar had taken this the day before and had climbed to its highest price in a year.
Meanwhile, oil prices rebounded in the wake of a US strike on Iranian facilities in Syria. This has once again raised concerns about an expansion of the Middle East conflict.
The gold price rose sharply in electronic trading with the latest news about the Middle East war and broke the $2,000 per troy ounce mark for the first time since May.
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INDEX last +/- % absolute +/- % YTD
DJIA 32,417.59 -1.1% -366.71 -2.2%
S&P 500 4,117.37 -0.5% -19.86 +7.2%
Nasdaq Comp. 12,643.01 +0.4% 47.41 +20.8%
Nasdaq-100 14,180.42 +0.5% 70.85 +29.6%
US bonds
Maturity Yield Bp to VT Yield VT +/-Bp YTD
2 years 5.02 -2.1 5.04 60.1
5 years 4.77 -3.2 4.80 77.0
7 years 4.84 -3.2 4.87 86.9
10 years 4.83 -1.5 4.85 95.1
30 years 5.01 +2.4 4.99 104.3
FOREX last +/- % Fri, 8:44 am Thu, 5:20 pm % YTD
EUR/USD 1.0570 +0.1% 1.0558 1.0534 -1.3%
EUR/JPY 158.09 -0.5% 158.60 158.45 +12.6%
EUR/CHF 0.9529 +0.4% 0.9496 0.9473 -3.7%
EUR/GBP 0.8720 +0.1% 0.8712 0.8692 -1.5%
USD/JPY 149.56 -0.5% 150.23 150.41 +14.1%
GBP/USD 1.2121 -0.1% 1.2119 1.2120 +0.2%
USD/CNH (Offshore) 7.3290 +0.1% 7.3227 7.3285 +5.8%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 33,726.02 -1.2% 34,173.66 33,953.53 +103.2%
ROHOEL most recently VT-Settlem. +/-% +/- USD% YTD
WTI/Nymex 85.25 83.21 +2.5% +2.04 +10.3%
Brent/ICE 90.12 87.93 +2.5% +2.19 +10.3%
METALS last day previous +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (spot) 2,006.03 1,984.70 +1.1% +21.33 +10.0%
Silver (spot) 23.08 22.83 +1.1% +0.25 -3.7%
Platinum (Spot) 902.78 905.00 -0.2% -2.23 -15.5%
Copper future 3.64 3.58 +1.6% +0.06 -4.4%
YTD based on the previous day’s closing level
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DJG/DJN/cln
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 27, 2023 4:10 p.m. ET (8:10 p.m. GMT)