Frankfurt, New York The stock exchanges on New York’s Wall Street have carried the momentum from 2021 with them into the new year. The most important indices rose on the first trading day after the New Year. The Dow Jones index of standard values closed on Monday 0.7 percent higher to 36,585 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.2 percent to 15,832 points. The broad S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to 4796 points.
Last year the Dow Jones had gained 18.7 percent, the S&P 500 even by more than a quarter. Both indices had reached record levels in the last trading days of the year.
Experts see room for improvement for the US stock exchanges in the further course of the year, albeit not for similarly large leaps as in the past year. “Since the monetary policy support is waning and the pandemic is not over, next year it should come down to a single-digit percentage increase,” said Robert Greil from the Merck Finck bank recently.
“We see a certain optimism at the beginning of the year coupled with the assumption that Omikron will not cause the economy as much damage as the market originally expected,” said Rick Meckler, partner at asset manager Cherry Lane. However, the economic consequences of the spread of the Corona variant Omikron could put a strain on corporate profits.
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However, US industry lost some of its momentum towards the end of the year. The purchasing managers index fell in December by 0.6 to 57.7 points, as the IHS Markit Institute announced on Monday for its monthly company survey. The barometer remains well above the growth threshold of 50 points.
Meanwhile, the US real estate market is sending positive signals. Construction spending rose 0.4 percent in November compared to the previous month, as the Ministry of Commerce announced on Monday. However, experts had expected an increase of 0.6 percent, after a revised increase of 0.4 percent in October.
Tesla shares are growing strongly
Among the biggest winners were the titles from Tesla with a price increase of more than 13 percent. For the sixth time in a row, the electric car manufacturer achieved a quarterly record for its deliveries.
Tesla announced delivery of 308,600 electric cars for the fourth quarter on Sunday. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had expected significantly less. Tesla cited higher production at its plant in Shanghai, which is now the main export center for the US group, as the reason.
Deutsche Bank then reiterated its buy recommendation on Monday. The deliveries are “impressive”, according to an analysis. “We continue to assume that Tesla’s strategy for battery technologies, new capacities and, above all, falling costs will help accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. Tesla’s market share could thus be expanded significantly. “
Analyst Jennifer Liang from investment advisor KGI also praised the numbers. On this basis, she is now expecting 1.48 million units to be delivered in 2022, 58 percent more than in the previous year. At the same time, it is raising its profit forecasts for 2021 and 2022 by eight and 16 percent, respectively.
Record-high sales at Tesla also drove up competitor stocks. US rival Lucid Group titles gained more than seven percent. The shares of Chinese competitor Nio, which are listed in the USA, advanced by 5.6 percent.
Record at Apple
Meanwhile, Apple made Wall Street history. The stock market value of the smartphone and software giant surged above $ 3 trillion for the first time. Never before has a US company been valued so highly on the stock market. That is more than the UK’s annual economic output and a little less than Germany’s. A price increase of around three percent to a record high of $ 182.88 was enough to raise the market capitalization of the Californian iphone manufacturer to the new milestone. In the end there was a price premium of 2.5 percent to $ 182.01.
“The company has a fantastic range of products and has so much to offer in the years to come,” said Craig Erlam, market analyst at brokerage firm Oanda. “Over the years there have been doubts, especially with regard to innovation, but at the moment the company seems to meet all the criteria.” The jump over the market capitalization mark of four trillion dollars is therefore only a matter of time.
Like numerous other technology companies, Apple is one of the beneficiaries of the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to the trend towards video calls or online shopping, the company’s stocks rose almost 250 percent from their low after the March 2020 stock market crash.
Further individual values in focus:
Nio: The ongoing boom in electric cars is encouraging investors to join Nio. The company doubled sales to 91,429 units in 2021. The Nio share listed in the USA rose at times by more than four percent.
Office Depot: The $ 305 million sale of the Compu-Com IT division boosted Office Depot’s stock. The titles of the office supplies retailer rise by more than six percent over the course of trading. The company also announced that it would add $ 200 million to its share buyback program.
Microsoft: After e-mails got stuck in some versions of Microsoft’s Exchange software at the beginning of the year, the group published a solution to the problem. The cause of the problem was an incorrect date format in a file for the malware scanner integrated in Exchange. As a result, the antivirus software crashed and ensured that e-mails were not forwarded. Nevertheless, the Microsoft share temporarily lost just under one percent on Monday.
Chevron and Exxon Mobil: Oil companies Chevron and Exxon Mobil benefited from the rise in oil prices. Their shares gained between 1.6 and 3.8 percent. Tamas Varga from the commodity broker PVM said there was a certain degree of confidence on the commodities market as well as on the stock exchanges. “The infection rates are increasing, new restrictions are being introduced in several countries, including the tourism sector is suffering, but the optimism of investors is palpable.” 2021 has shown that the fight against Corona can be won, even if the path to it is paved with stones may be.
Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo’s shares went up by almost six percent. You benefited from an upgrade to “overweight”.
Goldman Sachs: The largest daily winners in the Dow were stocks in the investment bank Goldman Sachs, the aircraft manufacturer Boeing and the chip manufacturer Intel, all of which rose 3.3 percent.
Nike: The papers of the sporting goods manufacturer Nike, on the other hand, were among the weakest values with minus 1.2 percent. Only the shares of the DIY chain Home Depot were even weaker at minus 1.5 percent.
Moderna: Moderna’s stock was one of the biggest losers on the Nasdaq 100, falling 7.5 percent. Biontech sagged on the Nasdaq by 10.1 percent. Pfizer’s drug Paxlovid against Covid-19 is about to be approved in Germany. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency approval for paxlovid just before Christmas.
More: These eight stocks are the bearers of hope for the stock market year 2022.