NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After profit-taking on Wednesday, the mood on the US stock market brightened somewhat on Thursday. The most important indices each rose by around one percent, continuing their recent rally. Weak economic data generally supported the assumption that the US Federal Reserve would quickly reduce key interest rates next year. This prospect is currently driving the stock markets because lower interest rates make stocks appear more attractive compared to bonds.
The Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) rose by 0.87 percent to 37,404.35 points. The day before, the US leading index fell again for the first time after its recent record hunt with nine positive trading days in a row. The loss on Wednesday was 1.3 percent. The last time he lost that much in one day was at the beginning of October, before the brilliant stock market rally began.
The market-wide S&P 500 rose by 1.03 percent to 4,746.75 points on Thursday. The technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 gained 1.23 percent to 16,757.41 points.
According to a third estimate, the US economy grew somewhat weaker in the summer than previously known. In addition, the business climate in the Philadelphia region deteriorated significantly in December.
At the top of the Nasdaq 100, shares of Micron Technology jumped 8.6 percent. According to analysts, the semiconductor manufacturer presented a strong outlook. The shares of competitor Intel rose by 2.9 percent and were ahead in the Dow.
Salesforce’s shares gained 2.7 percent as the second best Dow value and benefited from a positive study by Morgan Stanley. Analyst Keith Weiss sees sales drivers for the software company, contrary to the subdued investor expectations. These included price increases and the cloud business.
Investors were also concerned by a report that the US was considering higher tariffs on Chinese goods. These included electric cars, as the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people. Tesla gained three percent. Among the traditional manufacturers that also offer electric cars, General Motors rose by 2.2 percent and Ford (Ford Motor) rose by 4.6 percent.
According to the report, solar products also belong to this group. Among stocks in the industry, Enphase Energy gained 4.6 percent, SolarEdge rose 2.4 percent and First Solar rose 3.3 percent. Sunrun shares rose by seven percent.
The euro benefited from the weak US economic data and was most recently quoted at 1.1005 US dollars. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.0983 (Wednesday: 1.0944) dollars. The dollar therefore cost 0.9104 (0.9137) euros.
On the US bond market, the futures contract for ten-year government bonds (T-Note Future) fell by 0.10 percent to 112.67 points. In return, the yield rose to 3.90 percent./la/he
— By Lutz Alexander, dpa-AFX —