new York Fading hopes of a quick end to the fighting in Ukraine weighed on US investors’ mood. The standard value index Dow Jones closed 0.2 percent lower on Wednesday at 35,228 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.2 percent to 14,442 points. The broad S&P 500.SPX lost 0.6 percent to 4602 points.
During the most recent ceasefire negotiations, Russia had announced a reduction in attacks on Kyiv and Chernihiv. Both cities came under fire again on Wednesday. “The road to peace seems to be long and rocky,” said analyst Christian Henke from brokerage house IG.
“Inverted yield curve” on the bond market – oil prices are rising
Investors were also worried about the recession signals sent out by the US bond market. There, the two-year bonds temporarily yielded more than the ten-year ones. This “inverse yield curve” is a reliable indicator of an approaching recession, said Ulrich Stephan, chief investment strategist for private and corporate customers at Deutsche Bank. But it says nothing about the timing of the downturn.
Speculations about a European embargo on Russian oil also pushed up the price of the US grade WTI. It rose in price by three percent to $107.31 per barrel (159 liters). Should there be a boycott, the supply will be reduced by an additional million barrels per day, the experts at the consulting firm JBC Energy calculated. This helped oil companies like Exxon and Chevron gain up to 1.7 percent.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Look at the individual values
Biontech: The corona vaccine manufacturer significantly exceeded the previous year’s figures with important performance indicators for 2021. The company also reiterated the sales target range for its Covid-19 vaccine this year and plans to launch a share buyback program of up to $1.5 billion. A special dividend of EUR 2 per share is also planned. The stock, which rose sharply in early trading, ended up just 1.4 percent higher on the Nasdaq.
Lululemon. The yoga clothing supplier surprised positively with its numbers. Against the background of management’s confidence in the collections, the business goals could turn out to be conservative, wrote analyst John Kernan of wealth manager Cowen. Lululemon stocks rose nearly 10 percent.
PVH: PVH shares, on the other hand, lost 6.5 percent. The owner of the fashion brands “Tommy Hilfiger” and “Calvin Klein” forecast sales growth of two to three percent and earnings of nine dollars per share for 2022. The company is thus falling short of expectations, stockbrokers complained.
Chewy: Chewy stock falls more than 16 percent. The company was in the red in the last quarter. The pet products seller temporarily lost 15 cents a share, ahead of the 8 cents loss analysts had expected.
More: Dax closes in the red – is there too much optimism in the courses?