NEW YORK (Dow Jones) — U.S. stock markets gave up some of the gains seen in early business during Monday’s trading session. The central bankers’ symposium in Jackson Hole at the weekend is largely over, but upcoming economic data are coming into focus and making investors act a little more cautiously.
Around noon (New York local time), the Dow Jones index gained 0.5 percent to 34,529 points. The S&P 500, like the Nasdaq Composite, rose 0.4 percent.
Overall, the symposium brought hardly any new insights: On the one hand, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell perceives inflation as still too high, on the other hand, according to Powell, the economy is coping well with the interest rate increases already seen and the labor market continues to make a robust impression. At least Powell announced that the central bank would act cautiously. He emphasized once again that she wanted to do this in a way that was heavily dependent on the data.
Market participants are also pointing out that important economic data are again on the agenda for the current week, such as the price index for personal consumer spending (PCE deflator) and data from the labor market on Wednesday and Friday. The PCE deflator is considered the US Federal Reserve’s preferred price measure.
In the meantime, interest rate hike expectations have risen somewhat after Powell’s appearance, particularly what was considered possible in November rate hike regards. The trend on the bond market is still upwards, so yields are falling. They had recently increased significantly.
“Ultimately, the course has not changed significantly,” comments Allan von Mehren, an analyst at Danske Bank. “Those who believe the Fed will pivot early next year still have arguments for it, and vice versa.” More importantly, Powell said nothing to dampen investor appetites for large-cap growth stocks.
The fact that Beijing has taken measures to support the weak domestic stock market, including halving the stamp duty, is providing a slight tailwind at best. Various measures to stimulate the economy had already been taken in the recent past.
3M wants to draw the line
Among the individual values, 3M is up 4.9 percent. The market is rewarding the fact that the conglomerate is apparently about to draw a line under more than 300,000 lawsuits from veterans. They accuse 3M and a subsidiary that their earplugs did not protect them from hearing loss. 3M is said to be willing to pay $5.5 billion for it. The lawsuit had grown into the largest class-action lawsuit in US history.
Horizon Therapeutics gain 5.5 percent. The US competition regulator has suspended Amgen’s challenge to its $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon. This is to gain time to consider a settlement that would allow the transaction to be completed subject to conditions. Amgen show just about asserted themselves.
Course fantasy is also available at Xpeng (+2.8%). The Chinese electric vehicle maker is buying a smart car development company from Didi Global for around $744 million in stock, and has also agreed a broader partnership with the transportation service provider.
Danaher 1.8 percent tend higher. The US conglomerate has announced that it is buying British company Abcam, a manufacturer and seller of proteins for pharmaceutical research, at a value of around $5.7 billion including debt.
===
INDEX last +/-% absolute +/-% YTD
DJIA 34,528.56 +0.5% 181.66 +4.2%
S&P 500 4,421.14 +0.4% 15.43 +15.2%
Nasdaq Comp. 13,650.86 +0.4% 60.21 +30.4%
Nasdaq-100 14,977.16 +0.2% 35.33 +36.9%
US Bonds
Term Yield Bp to VT Yield VT +/-Bp YTD
2 years 5.06 -1.7 5.08 64.3
5 years 4.42 -3.4 4.45 41.7
7 years 4.34 -2.7 4.36 36.7
10 years 4.22 -1.5 4.23 33.8
30 years 4.28 -0.4 4.29 31.3
FOREX last +/- % Mon, 8:16 Fri, 17:28 % YTD
EUR/USD 1.0808 +0.1% 1.0816 1.0787 +1.0%
EUR/JPY 158.28 +0.1% 158.32 157.75 +12.8%
EUR/CHF 0.9547 +0.0% 0.9549 0.9548 -3.5%
EUR/GBP 0.8582 +0.0% 0.8581 0.8578 -3.0%
USD/JPY 146.44 -0.0% 146.37 146.26 +11.7%
GBP/USD 1.2593 +0.1% 1.2606 1.2575 +4.1%
USD/CNH (Offshore) 7.2929 +0.1% 7.2916 7.2958 +5.3%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 26,118.06 +0.2% 25,953.35 25,952.34 +57.3%
ROHOEL last VT-Settlem. +/- % +/- USD % YTD
WTI/Nymex 80.21 79.83 +0.5% +0.38 +2.4%
Brent/ICE 84.61 84.48 +0.2% +0.13 +2.4%
GAS VT Settlem. +/- EUR
Dutch TTF 37.57 34.78 +8.0% +2.79 -57.0%
METALS last day before +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (Spot) 1,925.11 1,915.35 +0.5% +9.76 +5.6%
Silver (Spot) 24.34 24.23 +0.5% +0.11 +1.6%
Platinum (Spot) 971.00 947.45 +2.5% +23.55 -9.1%
Copper Future 3.78 3.77 +0.1% +0.00 -1.2%
YTD relative to previous day’s close
===
Contact the author: [email protected]
DJG/DJN/cln/gos
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 28, 2023 12:24 ET (16:24 GMT)