NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States, the New York stock exchanges are looking at a strong end to the week on Friday. Investors are in a good mood after the successful start to the reporting season and are also optimistic about the interest rate prospects.
An unexpectedly strong rise in industrial production in December did not stand in the way of interest rate cut hopes on Friday. Since the positive inflation data two days ago, the pressure on bond market yields has eased noticeably.
The market-wide S&P 500 climbed back above the round mark of 6,000 points on Friday and, with an increase of 1.18 percent, was almost 8 points above it. The leading index Dow Jones Industrial rose by 0.95 percent to 43,562 points. Things looked even better for the technology-heavy NASDAQ 100, up 1.83 percent to 21,478 points.
Among the individual stocks, the shares of the chip manufacturer Intel jumped by 8.6 percent and led the Nasdaq 100 index with this price increase. Stock marketers once again spoke of vague takeover speculation.
Tesla shares rose by almost 6 percent. Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has a particularly close connection to Trump. Musk, who also owns Platform
Applied Materials (Applied Materials) rose 2.4 percent, benefiting from upbeat analyst commentary from KeyBanc Capital Market. When it comes to semiconductor companies, the experts now prefer the shares of companies that have immediate growth drivers. This also includes Lam Research, whose shares rose by a further 1.6 percent after the previous day’s significant gain.
The transport and logistics company JB Hunt (JB Hunt Transportation Services) fell short of market expectations with its profit in the fourth quarter. Analysts also noted that forecasts for the first quarter were cautious. The shares lost 6.3 percent.
The shares of the oil field service provider Schlumberger rose by 8.1 percent according to figures for 2024. Investors were pleased about an increase in the dividend and the start of a share buyback program./ajx/mis