Frankfort, New York The US stock exchanges closed in the red on Thursday after an initially friendly start. A sell-off set in in late trading. The US standard value index Dow Jones went 0.9 percent lower to 34,715 points from trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.3 percent to 14,154 jobs. The broad S&P 500 lost 1.1 percent to 4482 points. Encouraging corporate balance sheets had initially lured investors back to Wall Street.
However, interest rate worries did not let go of investors, said Craig Erlam, market analyst at brokerage house Oanda. After all, there is already speculation about a US interest rate hike of half a percentage point in March. The question now is whether the reporting season can allay fears of an economic slowdown. “We’ll see soon, as next week is all about the big tech stocks.” Stocks in this sector are particularly sensitive to monetary policy decisions because higher interest rates, experts say, will devalue future profits from these high-growth companies.
The ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine also gave stockbrokers headaches. This was reflected, among other things, in a rising price for palladium. The precious metal rose 3.3 percent to $2,068 a troy ounce (31.1 grams). After all, Russia is an important palladium supplier, said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann. “An export stop of the raw material that is so important for the automotive industry could probably not be compensated.”
Fearing a Russian invasion of Ukraine, investors threw government bonds from both countries out of their portfolios. This pushed the yields on Ukrainian bonds maturing in 2025 to 11.839 percent and on Russian bonds maturing in 2047 at 4.518 percent.
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Netflix: The streaming market leader Netflix only expects weak user growth after the Corona boom. For the current quarter, the company expects only 2.5 million new customers, as announced on Thursday after the US stock market closed in Los Gatos. Netflix remained well below the forecasts of the analysts. The stock fell more than 20 percent in after-hours trading.
Travelers: At the top of the Dow, shares of The Travelers rose more than 3 percent to hit a record high. The major insurer managed a jump in profits of more than a third in 2021 despite high hurricane and tornado losses.
American Airlines: The quarterly figures and forecasts of the airlines American Airlines and United Airlines were not worth buying for the investors. Both shares lost more than three percent. American Airlines expressed restraint on sales in the current quarter. United Airlines’ current quarter statements also suggested a slower recovery in air travel.
AMD: After heavy losses the previous day, the shares of Advanced Micro Devices can stop their slide for the time being. After initial losses, the stock remained almost unchanged at $128.
Peloton: A media report about a production stop brought Peloton one of the biggest price falls in the company’s history. Shares in the fitness equipment maker fell nearly 24 percent. According to CNBC, the company is temporarily halting production due to dwindling demand.
According to Piper Sandler, investors should not expect a repeat of the outstanding performance this year. Analyst Harsh Kumar downgraded chip stock to neutral from overweight, writing in a commentary Thursday that AMD stock may be capped as the pace of growth slows. Since the beginning of the year, the chip title has already lost more than ten percent in value.
Ford: The stock fell 0.8 percent after analyst firm Jefferies downgraded the automaker’s stock from “buy” to “hold.” Optimism about Ford’s plans for electric vehicles would have pushed the stock price too high. The stock now has very little upside potential.
Corsair: Corsair shares advanced 2.9 percent. According to preliminary figures, the provider of computer game accessories had sales of 1.9 billion dollars in 2021 and was thus at the upper end of the targeted range. In addition, analysts are expecting further mergers in the gaming industry following the almost $70 billion takeover of the video games provider Activision Blizzard by the software group Microsoft.
Alcoa: Alcoa’s quarterly report was also well received on the market, the price rose by 2.7 percent and was close to its highest level since 2008. High prices for aluminum and intermediate products more than compensated for the recently increased costs for energy and raw materials.
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