WDH/ROUNDUP/New York shares Conclusion: Dow is treading water – Nasdaq weaker

(Corrected typo in second paragraph)

NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After two weak days on the stock market, New York stock trading stabilized on Wednesday, at least below the standard values ​​in the Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial). However, disappointing foreign trade data from China and the reluctance to make interest rate decisions prevented a recovery after the leading US index had lost almost three percent since the end of November.

While the Dow was unchanged at 33,597.92 points, the technology-heavy Nasdaq stock exchange suffered losses again. The Nasdaq 100 index (NASDAQ 100) fell 0.45 percent to 11,497.39 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell 0.19 percent to close at 3933.92 points. For him it was even the fifth day of losses in a row.

“China, the growth engine, is losing steam,” commented analyst Christian Henke from IG Markets on Chinese imports and exports in November, which fell sharply as a result of the zero-Covid policy. “This is fueling renewed fears that economies are in for a tough time,” said Susannah Streeter of wealth manager Hargreaves Lansdown.

Another topic of discussion was the Bank of Canada, which met the expectations of most market participants with an interest rate hike of 0.50 percentage points. Investors saw the news anticipating the US Federal Reserve, which stock market traders expect to tighten more slowly in the coming week. However, that is not certain. Investors are currently holding back from buying shares, it has been said in the past few days.

China also remains at the center of the debate at Tesla. Shares fell 3.2 percent on Wednesday on reports that the electric car-Manufacturers there are using discounts for some models to boost the sluggish demand. The titles of other tech giants such as Amazon, Meta (Meta Platforms (ex Facebook)) or Netflix showed a mixed trend on Wednesday.

There was positive news for Lowes shareholders (Lowes Companies), where the price rose by 2.5 percent. The hardware store chain announced the buyback of its own shares and intends to provide 15 billion US dollars for this. It was also well received that this year’s outlook was confirmed. This rubbed off positively on competitor Home Depot, which gained 0.9 percent in the Dow.

Papers from the healthcare sector were in general demand; in the Dow, the stocks from Merck & Co (Merck) were among the biggest winners with a plus of 1.1 percent. The industry was already in demand in Europe: Sanofi and GSK in particular had grown significantly. The dismissal of a class action lawsuit in the USA for alleged risks from the heartburn drug Zantac brought great relief to the two pharmaceutical companies. The US group Pfizer is also benefiting from the news. Its titles also gained 1.1 percent.

Otherwise, price-moving analyst voices were the focus. As a result, titles from the tourism industry came under pressure. Wolfe Research experts have generally become more pessimistic about demand during a slowing economy. The travel portals Expedia and TripAdvisor suffered from downgrades with taxes of more than 6 percent. In the wake of this, airlines also came under pressure.

Brown-Forman (Brown-Forman A) shares also fell more sharply, losing more than 7 percent. According to Bernstein Research expert Nadine Sarwat, liquor makers like Jack Daniel’s fell well short of profit expectations because of disappointing profitability in the second fiscal quarter. An increased sales target did not console investors.

After a lull on the previous day, the euro has risen above the 1.05 US dollar mark again. Most recently $1.0512 was paid. The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference rate at 1.0529 (Tuesday: 1.0516) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9498 euros.

US Treasury bonds have continued their price gains from the previous day. The futures contract for ten-year bonds rose 0.66 percent to 115.11 points. In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 3.42 percent./tih/mis

— By Timo Hausdorf, dpa-AFX —

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