By Steffen Gosenheimer
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–After another lethargic morning trading and moderate price gains at lunchtime, the US stock markets closed well on Tuesday. While some market participants continue to hope for a year-end rally, others are skeptical after the S&P 500 rose by 8.5 percent in November alone and by 18.5 percent this year. The fact that US consumer confidence rose slightly more than expected in November only provided a slight boost. In addition, the favorable interest rate environment provided support.
The Dow Jones index rose by 0.2 percent to 35,417 points. The S&P 500 closed well, the Nasdaq indices gained 0.3 percent. According to initial information, there were 1,498 (Monday: 1,305) price winners and 1,365 (1,580) losers on the Nyse. 78 (73) shares closed unchanged.
Yields on the bond market once again fell significantly. On the one hand, the market no longer expects any further interest rate increases, and on the other hand, speculation about the timing of the first interest rate cuts is already increasing. US central banker Christopher Waller – known in recent years as a supporter of interest rate increases – sees a slowdown in economic momentum in the USA. That could help cool inflation to the Fed’s target, Waller said. However, it is unclear whether further interest rate increases are off the table. On the interest rate futures market, the probability of a first interest rate cut in May 2024 rose from 43 to 49 percent.
Waller’s colleague Michelle Bowman, meanwhile, assumes that the Fed will have to raise interest rates further to curb inflation. It will now be exciting to see what the PCE deflator used by the US Federal Reserve to measure inflation will turn out on Thursday.
Euro struggles against the dollar at 1.10 – gold price rises sharply
The dollar came back across the board, the euro cost more than $1.10 for the first time since August, but was recently just below that. The dollar index lost 0.4 percent. The dollar continued to suffer from falling US market interest rates and interest rate cut speculation.
The price of gold rose significantly from its recently reached six-month high, by around another $27 to $2,041. The drivers were the weaker dollar, which made the precious metal cheaper for non-dollar buyers, and falling bond yields. This makes gold relatively more attractive as an investment.
Oil prices recovered by a good 2 percent from their recent losses. Here too, the weak dollar provided support. There was speculation that the producing countries Saudi Arabia and Russia could extend the production limits at the OPEC+ meeting, which was postponed to Thursday.
Micron weak despite higher outlook
Micron fell 1.8 percent on the stock market, although the memory chip manufacturer had raised its sales outlook. But Micron also expects higher costs. When it came to the price reaction, trading said that market expectations were already very high. Intel tended to hold up well, AMD fell by 0.5 percent and Nvidia by 0.9 percent.
Zscaler closed 1.0 percent higher after heavier initial losses. The security software manufacturer reported better results for the first quarter and raised its forecast. At the same time, management indicated that they needed to increase spending to bolster growth.
Carlyle Group prices increased by 4.9 percent. The reason for this is that the paper will be included in the S&P 400 MidCap index. iRobot recovered 3.3 percent after plunging 17 percent the previous day. The EU had imposed conditions on Amazon’s ongoing takeover of the vacuum robot manufacturer and threatened a ban.
Walt Disney closed 2.8 percent lower. Disney CEO Iger had downplayed previous comments suggesting that some key assets could be up for sale. He admitted that the task of turning the company around was more difficult than he expected when he took the reins a year ago.
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INDEX last +/- % absolute +/- % YTD
DJIA 35,416.98 +0.2% 83.51 +6.9%
S&P 500 4,554.89 +0.1% 4.46 +18.6%
Nasdaq Comp. 14,281.76 +0.3% 40.73 +36.5%
Nasdaq-100 16,010.43 +0.3% 48.45 +46.4%
US bonds
Maturity Yield Bp to VT Yield VT +/-Bp YTD
2 years 4.73 -13.9 4.87 31.5
5 years 4.29 -11.8 4.41 29.3
7 years 4.35 -7.7 4.43 38.4
10 years 4.34 -5.2 4.39 45.7
30 years 4.51 -2.2 4.54 54.4
FOREX last +/- % Tue, 8:23 am Mon, 7:00 pm % YTD
EUR/USD 1.0989 +0.3% 1.0945 1.0932 +2.7%
EUR/JPY 162.04 -0.5% 162.43 162.86 +15.5%
EUR/CHF 0.9648 +0.0% 0.9638 0.9638 -2.5%
EUR/GBP 0.8657 -0.2% 0.8674 0.8675 -2.2%
USD/JPY 147.46 -0.8% 148.40 148.96 +12.5%
GBP/USD 1.2693 +0.5% 1.2618 1.2602 +4.9%
USD/CNH (Offshore) 7.1333 -0.4% 7.1587 7.1645 +3.0%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 38,197.13 +3.0% 37,039.39 36,942.34 +130.1%
ROHOEL most recently VT-Settlem. +/-% +/- USD% YTD
WTI/Nymex 76.36 74.86 +2.0% +1.50 -0.6%
Brent/ICE 81.61 79.98 +2.0% +1.63 -0.0%
GAS VT Settlem. +/- EUR
Dutch TTF 43.1 44.25 -2.6% -1.15 -50.8%
METALS last day previous +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (spot) 2,041.50 2,014.04 +1.4% +27.46 +11.9%
Silver (spot) 25.02 24.73 +1.2% +0.29 +4.4%
Platinum (spot) 943.88 922.45 +2.3% +21.43 -11.6%
Copper future 3.80 3.76 +1.2% +0.05 -0.2%
YTD based on the previous day’s closing level
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DJG/DJN/gos
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2023 4:08 p.m. ET (9:08 p.m. GMT)