Worries about rate hikes weigh on Wall Street.
(Photo: AP)
Frankfort, New York On Wall Street, investors dared to buy shares again on Monday after the losses in the old week. The Dow Jones gained two percent to 31,880 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.6 percent to 11,535 points and the broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.9 percent to 3,974 points. “Today is a rebound from the sell-off of the past few months as markets are looking for a tradable bottom in a potential bear market rally,” said Jeff Schulze, investment strategist at ClearBridge Investments. Since the beginning of the year, the S&P has lost around 18 percent.
Rising bond yields buoyed US financials. The US Federal Reserve recently signaled that it intends to raise interest rates by half a percentage point at each of the next two meetings. After more optimistic earnings guidance, JPMorgan shares picked up speed, gaining 6.1 percent. At an investor conference, the major bank raised its forecast for interest income and reaffirmed its profitability target. The lender expects net interest income excluding the market segment (NII) to be $56 billion this year. “There is a degree of optimism that too much negativity has been priced in regarding the coming quarters and the banks’ earnings potential,” Schulze said.
Investors in Electronic Arts are betting on an upcoming takeover and are buying. The shares of the video game maker gained 2.3 percent. The US website “Puck News” said that there had been exploratory talks with large media groups. Disney, Apple and Amazon are said to have been among the potential buyers. Comcast boss Brian Roberts approached Electronic Arts and proposed a spin-off from NBCUniversal followed by a merger of the media and games giants.
Takeover speculation also drove shares in cloud service provider VMWare up by almost a quarter. According to media reports, the chip manufacturer Broadcom is in talks to incorporate the company. Broadcom’s shares fell nearly 3.1 percent.
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Individual values in focus:
Electronic Arts: EA shares are up 2.5 percent. Previously, Puck News reported that the company was actively looking for a buyer or merger partner. EA has reportedly been in talks with Walt Disney, Apple and Amazon, among others.
Game stop: The video game retailer has launched a digital wallet for cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Shares initially fall 1.6 percent but eventually close 0.5 percent higher.
Boeing: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station over the weekend. The share rose by around 2.7 percent.
Autodesk: The stock fell more than 8 percent at its peak. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) previously cut its price target on the stock to $255 from $295 per share. RBC said the design software company needs to establish consistency in its results to boost investor confidence.
didi: Meanwhile, the owners of the Chinese travel agency Didi sealed the planned withdrawal from Wall Street. The Uber competitor had drawn the displeasure of the Chinese authorities with its stock exchange plans. Didi shares were down four percent on Monday in New York. Since the beginning of the year they have lost more than 70 percent.
GeoVax Labs: Shares in smallpox vaccine and drug maker GeoVax Labs surged nearly 67 percent. The United States has identified its third suspected case of monkeypox virus infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) expects the numbers to increase and is expanding surveillance to countries where the disease does not normally occur.
US stock market expert Koch: “Wall Street is concentrating on the sunny side”
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