Wall Street takes a breather
After a sobering start to the year, the US stock markets are falling again. Investors are cashing in on technology stocks in particular. The publication of the Fed's latest meeting minutes does not provide any relief for share prices.
As on the previous day, the US stock markets closed weaker after profit-taking. The Dow Jones index of blue chips closed 0.8 percent lower at 37,430 points. The broader S&P 500 also lost 0.8 percent to just under 4,705 points. The Nasdaq technology index fell by 1.2 percent to 14,592 points. "We've had quite a rally from the October lows," said portfolio strategist Garrett Melson from Natixis Investment Managers Solutions. A "little breather" is therefore not surprising.
In the end, the eagerly awaited minutes of the US Federal Reserve's December meeting hardly played a role in trading. While the stock markets are assuming that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged in January, traders on the futures markets have priced in a 67% chance of a rate cut of 25 basis points in March. The tensions in the war between Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas and developments in the Ukraine war are also causing uncertainty among investors.
On the currency market, the dollar, which is coveted in times of crisis, was also in demand on Wednesday. The dollar index rose 0.2 percent to 102.47 points. Meanwhile, the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which has recently risen sharply, fell by up to 8.7 percent to 41,206 dollars. At the close of trading in New York, it was 5.2 percent lower. Shortly before a landmark decision by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a Bitcoin spot ETF, investors are obviously getting cold feet, said market analyst Timo Emden from Emden Research.
Airlines suffer from high oil prices
Meanwhile, reports of a disruption at Libya's most important oil field drove up the price of crude oil by more than three percent. Two engineers said that protests had led to a partial reduction in production at the Sharara oil field, which has a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. The rise in oil prices hit airline shares. The shares of Delta Airlines, JetBlue, United Airlines and American Airlines fell by up to 6.5 percent.
Moderna shares also fell, losing around 3.5 percent. Investors cashed in after Tuesday's strong gains, when an optimistic outlook boosted the shares of the vaccine manufacturer.
An upgrade gave Verizon shares a boost. The shares of the US telecommunications group climbed 0.7 percent. The experts at investment bank KeyBanc upgraded them to "overweight" from "sector weight". A trial success with a drug for blood diseases drove the shares of the pharmaceutical company Agios Pharmaceuticals up by 5.2 percent. According to the company, the drug Mitapivat achieved both the primary and secondary objectives in a late-stage study in adult patients with an inherited blood disorder.
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Source: www.ntv.de
