Wall Street closes inconsistently as interest rate fears put tech stocks under pressure

new York The US stock exchanges were mixed at the end of the week. While an unexpectedly sharp rise in consumer sentiment lifted sentiment in the Dow Jones index, US growth companies pushed the Nasdaq into the red on Friday.

The Dow Jones gained 0.5 percent to 33,869 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.6 percent to 11,718 points and the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 4,090 points.

The fear of rising interest rates just won’t go away on Wall Street, said Jürgen Molnar, capital markets strategist at broker RoboMarkets. Yields on 10-year US government bonds rose to their highest level in more than a month. However, investors are likely to focus primarily on the price data for January due next week. Experts polled by Reuters expect a further decline to 6.2 percent.

New signals are also coming from the Fed: According to a leading currency watchdog, the US Federal Reserve could lower the key interest rate again in the coming year. The prerequisite is a drop in inflation, said the head of the Philadelphia Fed district, Patrick Harker, on Friday the Reuters news agency.

However, he spoke out in favor of further rate hikes of 0.25 percent for the immediate future. “What is driving our interest rate hikes at the moment is inflation, and we are seeing the first signs that inflation is starting to fall.” The central bank wants to curb the strong inflation in the country and also use higher interest rates to cool down the overheated labor market. An updated interest rate outlook will be presented in March.

China values ​​under pressure

The stock exchanges were also troubled by the threat of sanctions in the dispute over a downed Chinese balloon in US airspace. “The espionage affair has the potential to strain not only diplomatic relations between the two superpowers, but also both economies,” said portfolio manager Thomas Altmann of asset manager QC Partners. Chinese companies listed in the US came under pressure. The shares of the online retailers Alibaba and Pinduoduo lost 4.4 and 1.5 percent.

Oil markets saw prices rise after Russia announced production cuts. The US variety WTI and the North Sea variety Brent rose in price by about 2.3 percent to 79.81 and 86.51 dollars per barrel. From March, production in Russia is to be reduced by 500,000 barrels per day. This boosted energy values. Exxon shares rose 4.2 percent.

Look at other individual values

Lyft: In other individual values, the shares of the ride service provider Lyft lost 36.4 percent of their value after a disappointing outlook. Papers from rival Uber lost five percent. “The results reinforce our thesis that Lyft has a structural competitive disadvantage versus Uber in terms of market share, driver supply and cost,” wrote analysts at RBC Capital Markets. Uber surprised on Wednesday with its quarterly profit and forecast.

Spotify: Activist investor ValueAct Capital Partners’ entry into Spotify delighted investors in the music streaming service. Stocks rose 3.6 percent. “We welcome ValueAct as an investor in Spotify,” says a spokesman for the Swedish company. No further information on the investment was given.

Expedia: Shares of the travel company fell more than 10 percent after a disappointing quarterly report. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.26 on sales of $2.62 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $1.67 per share on sales of $2.7 billion, according to Refinitiv.

US stock market expert Koch: “The volatility on the stock market is likely to increase”

Yelp: The customer reviews platform gained about 3.3 percent in the stock after the company posted fourth-quarter revenue of $309 million, beating analysts’ expectations of $307 million. Earnings per share were in line with estimates.

Cloudflare: The cloud service provider released quarterly results on Thursday after the market close that beat analysts’ expectations. Cloudflare rose more than eight percent premarket, in later trading the papers are 1.5 percent ahead.

Rigetti: Planned job cuts are boosting stocks at quantum computing company Rigetti. The stock rose more than 12 percent to $1.17. The US company wants to lay off 28 percent of the workforce or around 50 employees as part of its restructuring plan. The group anticipates restructuring costs of approximately $1.4 million in the first quarter. Rigetti shares have lost nearly 93 percent of their value in the past year.

More: That’s what fund managers expect in this stock market year

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