Especially in Europe, the corona numbers are picking up again and are jeopardizing the economic recovery. On Wall Street, investors remain cautious ahead of the weekend. The technology-heavy Nasdaq is therefore losing for the third consecutive day.
Wall Street investors, plagued by corona worries, pulled back before the weekend. The Dow Jones index lost 0.9 percent to 27,657 points, while the S&P 500 fell 1.1 percent. As in the past few days, the technology-heavy Nasdaq largely lagged the other indices. At times it collapsed by over 2 percent, in the end it ended the trading day with a minus of 1.3 percent to 10,936 meters. It was the third day of losses in a row.
"There are no pressing reasons to buy stocks because a lot of people have a lot of questions about the coronavirus, the elections, the Federal Reserve and the lack of fiscal stimulus plus the question marks about valuations," said investment strategist Robert Pavlik of asset manager SlateStone Wealth.
Worldwide, more than 30 million people have now been infected with the coronavirus and almost a million have died. The US remains the hardest hit country with around 6.7 million confirmed cases and nearly 200,000 deaths. The rising number of corona infections also clouded the mood on Europe's stock exchanges in many countries.
Gold benefits
"If the number of cases increases so that the lockdowns have to be tightened to the point that they derail the economic recovery, then it becomes a risk factor," said investment expert Mobeen Tahir of investment house Wisdom Tree.
The lower risk appetite of investors benefited gold, which is coveted in times of crisis. The precious metal gained somewhat after its weakness on Thursday. The price remained within its volatile sideways movement between 1,920 and 1,980 dollars, in which it has been for almost four weeks. The troy ounce rose 0.4 percent to $ 1,951.
Tech and tourism under pressure
Technology stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Alphabet, which had risen sharply in recent weeks, lost up to 3 percent. Technology stocks, in particular, would feel it if there were signs of a sluggish economic recovery, said Thomas Hayes of asset manager Great Hill Capital.
The sectors hardest hit by pandemic restrictions were also among the losers. Cruise ship operators like Carnival and Royal Caribbean were down more than 5 percent. Shares in airlines such as American Airlines, Hawaiian Holdings and United also fell more than 3 percent.
The Oracle share lost 0.7 percent. US President Donald Trump has announced that the Tiktok site for US users will be blocked from November 12th. The Chinese Tiktok owner Bytedance had sought a partnership with Oracle. According to the US administration, Tiktok could remain available to US users if data security was guaranteed in the deal with Oracle. Bytedance is currently negotiating with Oracle as a technology partner for Tiktok's US business.
Sonoma Pharma rose 5.6 percent after a surface disinfectant was approved by Canada's health authority as part of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the restaurant chain J. Alexander's has weathered the worst, as CEO Mark Parkey announced. In the third fiscal quarter, the company is expected to achieve at least a balanced, perhaps even a slightly positive, cash flow. The stock jumped 21.0 percent.
Dollar with no recovery
On the foreign exchange market, the euro was able to expand its previous day's gains against the dollar. The previous day the dollar had come under pressure because the statements of the US Federal Reserve were now seen as quite deaf at second glance. The euro was trading at $ 1.1851 against 1.1820 on Thursday evening.
Oil prices fluctuated between a continuation of the upward trend and slight profit-taking. Driving factors were falling inventories in the US, a generally weak dollar and the hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico. The day before, the price was also supported by the Saudi warning that all OPEC + members would have to adhere to the agreed upper production limits. The price of a barrel of the WTI variety lost 0.2 percent to $ 40.90, Brent dropped 0.6 percent to $ 43.04.
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