Frankfurt, New York The US stock markets posted moderate losses on the penultimate trading day of an extremely successful stock market year. Until shortly before the close of trading, the leading indices were almost consistently positive on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial climbing another record high at 36,679 points in early trading. In the closing minutes, some investors seem to have got cold feet after all.
Ultimately, the Dow fell 0.25 percent to 36,398 points. The US leading index is thus heading for an annual profit of just under 12 percent. The S&P 500 fell 0.30 percent to 4,778 on Thursday. It had also hit a record high in early trading. The Nasdaq 100 lost 0.38 percent to 16,429 points. This looks much better for the technology-heavy index – viewed over the year -: the annual balance sheet so far is up 28 percent.
Even before the start of trading, the numbers for the weekly initial claims for US unemployment benefits were published, which were better than forecast. According to the analyst Jeffrey Halley from the dealer Oanda, they should ensure good mood in the market. In addition, the business climate in the Chicago region – as measured by the local purchasing managers’ index – brightened more strongly than expected in December.
Investors focus was on the phone call between US President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin on the subject of Ukraine later in the day. In the event of further military intervention in Ukraine, Biden threatens the Russian head of state with severe sanctions. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is also seen as a key geopolitical risk in the first few weeks of 2022. A further escalation of the conflict should also put the stock markets in severe turbulence, believes capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from trading house Robomarkets.
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Among the individual stocks, the shares of Micron Technology were under more pressure with a loss of 2.4 percent. The semiconductor company had warned that the ongoing lockdown in the Chinese metropolis of Xi’an could affect its semiconductor production. A trader said the region accounts for around ten percent of the world’s production capacity for so-called Nand chips. The Micron titles had jumped significantly a few days before Christmas because the company had given an optimistic outlook due to high demand for chips.
The euro was most recently quoted at US $ 1.1326. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.1334 (Wednesday: 1.1303) dollars.
The dollar had thus cost 0.8823 (0.8847) euros. US Treasuries rose. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note-Future) recently rose 0.17 percent to 130.44 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 1.51 percent.
Look at further individual values
Didi: Investors initially reacted disappointed to the decline in sales at Didi. The Chinese transport operator is under great pressure from the government in Beijing, which accuses the company of misusing customer data and therefore blocked several Didi apps from being downloaded. The US-listed shares of the Uber rival temporarily fell to a record low of $ 4.78, but then rose 5.84 percent to $ 5.23.
Micron: Micron is currently struggling with these problems. The memory chip manufacturer warned of production downtimes in the region’s semiconductor factories due to a pandemic-related lockdown in the Chinese city of Xian. Micron shares then fell 2.4 percent.
Biogen: Biogen fell 7.1 percent after electronics company Samsung denied a report in the Korea Economic Daily on talks about a takeover of the US biotech company. The day before, after speculation about the takeover, Biogen had jumped 9.5 percent.
Johnson & Johnson: Two doses of the corona vaccine from Johnson & Johnson reduced hospital stays caused by the Omicron variant in South Africa by up to 85 percent – an important finding as the vaccine is increasingly used on the continent. The results of the South African Medical Research Council studies could also explain why hospital admissions and deaths do not follow the exponential increase in new cases. Johnson & Johnson shares rise 0.4 percent.
Ocugen: There was also strong demand for Ocugen’s paper, which was up to 10.27 percent more expensive. According to development partner Bharat Biotech, the pharmaceutical company’s coronavirus vaccine has proven to be as effective as it is in adults when tested on two to 18-year-olds.
Tesla: The fact that the electric car manufacturer Tesla is recalling almost half a million vehicles in the US due to defects that may pose a risk to safety caused the shares to fall by 1.5 percent. The recall affects 356,000 “Model 3” cars built between 2017 and 2020. In addition, there are 119,000 “Model S” vehicles from 2014 to 2021 due to the risk of the bonnet opening unexpectedly.
More: These eight stocks are the bearers of hope for the stock market year 2022