NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – In New York, the stock market closed somewhat weaker on the last trading day of a disappointing stock market year. As if investors still wanted to see positive signs on Friday, the indices almost made up for their significant losses at the end of trading.
The leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) ultimately lost 0.22 percent to 33,147.25 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell by 0.25 percent to 3839.50 points. The technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 was down just 0.10 percent at 10,939.76 points at the end of the day. All three indices posted high losses in December, with the Nasdaq 100 alone slipping a good nine percent.
The annual balance is even bleaker: 2022 was the weakest stock market year since the financial and economic crisis of 2008. The Dow fell by 8.8 percent. The S&P 500 lost 19.4 percent. The Nasdaq 100 surpasses this with a minus of a third. Market observers are therefore talking about a “stock market year to forget”, investors should now “just check it off” and look to the future.
The United States is less affected by the Russian attack on Ukraine and the subsequent rise in energy prices than Europe, where stock prices also fell in 2022. However, inflation also picked up speed in the USA this year and forced the central bank to take countermeasures with significant interest rate hikes. This particularly affected the Nasdaq stock exchange, since the numerous technology companies listed there are more dependent on loans to finance their growth than companies from traditional sectors and their investments are therefore becoming more expensive.
The shares of electric car-Manufacturer Tesla gained 1.1 percent at the close after recovering somewhat on Wednesday and Thursday from its previous seven-day losing streak. With a discount of 65 percent for 2022, they are among the biggest losers of the year on the Nasdaq 100.
Significantly, two tech stocks were the biggest losers in the Dow in 2022, chip manufacturer Intel and cloud software specialist Salesforce, with losses of around 49 and almost 48 percent, respectively. On the last trading day of the year, Intel was the best value with a plus of 0.8 percent thanks to a brilliant final spurt, Salesforce closed little changed.
Chevron (Chevron) topped the Dow in 2022, up 53 percent. As an oil company, the company benefited from high energy prices. On Friday they gained 0.7 percent.
The euro surged above $1.07. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at 1.0666 (Thursday: 1.0649) dollars, the dollar thus cost 0.9376 (0.9391) euros.
On the US bond market, the futures contract for ten-year paper (T-Note Future) fell by 0.28 percent to 112.13 points. In return, the yield on ten-year bonds rose to 3.88 percent./ajx/he
— By Achim Jüngling, dpa-AFX —