Wall Street takes it easy before Christmas

Wall Street bids farewell to the Christmas holidays with a mixed trend, with hardly any changes in the US indices at the close of trading. The shares of a research company are triggering covetousness among investors.

Wall Street closed mixed on the last trading day before Christmas. Ahead of the long weekend, investors did not want to be caught on the wrong foot. The Dow Jones index of blue chips closed 0.1 percent lower at 37,385 points. By contrast, the technology-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.2 percent to 14,992 points. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 4754 points.

In early trading, Wall Street had been driven by interest rate hopes following the publication of an important inflation indicator. The core PCE index, which is particularly important for the US Federal Reserve as it raises interest rates in its fight against inflation, fell to 3.2 percent in November. This is the smallest increase in the annual inflation rate since April 2021. Economists had expected 3.3 percent after 3.4 percent in October. "The 3.2 percent is a victory for the Fed, which remains focused on restoring price stability without jeopardizing the economy," said Quincy Krosby, chief strategist at asset manager LPL Financial.

Sporting goods manufacturers were in the spotlight among companies. A forecast cut at Nike pushed the shares of the industry giant down by almost twelve percent. The shares of rivals Foot Locker and Dick's Sporting Goods lost almost four and almost three percent respectively in their wake.

In contrast, Karuna Therapeutics was in demand with a share price increase of almost 50 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, the pharmaceutical group Bristol Myers Squib (BMS) wants to buy the research company, which is working on a drug for schizophrenia, for 14 billion dollars.

A further increase in shares by the investment firm of stock market guru Warren Buffett boosted Occidental Petroleum shares. The US oil company's shares rose by 0.6 percent. According to a mandatory disclosure, Berkshire Hathaway bought 2.14 million Occidental shares for a total of 112.1 million dollars at the end of June, increasing its stake to more than 25 percent. Berkshire has been regularly buying Occidental shares since the beginning of the Ukraine war and the subsequent rise in oil prices. However, the company had stated that it had no intention of taking over the group.

Ansys shares were in high demand among investors in late trading. The shares of the simulation software manufacturer jumped 18 percent. Reuters had previously learned from people familiar with the matter that Synopsys, a manufacturer of chip design software, had submitted an offer to take over Ansys. Ansys has a market value of around 30 billion dollars. Synopsys shares, however, fell by more than six percent.