The arms boom in the United States appears to be continuing. This is also noticeable on Wall Street. At the start of the week, the papers of well-known manufacturers such as Smith & Wesson grew strongly. Microsoft is also very popular with investors.
The high demand from the Americans for pistols, rifles and ammunition gave the big armories a strong boost on the stock exchange at the beginning of the week. For July, the FBI reported a nearly 80 percent year-over-year increase in checks called "NICS Background Checks" that are done before arms purchases.
The US arms boom has been going on for some time during the corona crisis and anti-racism protests; in the previous month, the background checks had even reached a new record high. The stocks of the major US arms manufacturers are also benefiting from the development. The share certificates of Smith & Wesson At the start of the week, those of the rivals rose temporarily by more than eight percent Vista Outdoor and Storm Ruger by over five or over four percent. Since the beginning of the year, Smith & Wesson has increased by 180 percent, Vista Outdoor by a good 140 and Sturm Ruger by over 80. Since there are no real statistics on arms sales in the USA, the data from the Federal Police FBI are an important sales indicator.
Nasdaq composite at record high
In the USA, the mood in industry had surprisingly brightened significantly in July. The good news from Asia had already given good mood before: China's industry remains on the road to recovery after the Corona crisis. Of the Dow Jones index rose 0.9 percent to 26,664 points S&P 500 won 0.7 percent. Of the Nasdaq composite advanced by 1.5 percent and set a new record high at 10,928 points.
Analyst Jochen Stanzl from the trading house CMC Markets referred to the current reporting season for the second quarter as an additional drive. Almost two-thirds of US companies had released their numbers, with 84 percent exceeding expectations.
At the Foreign exchange market The dollar continued to recover from its two-year low on Friday. The ICE dollar index rose 0.4 percent, fueled by hope of an agreement in the dispute over Corona aid. However, analysts warned that if US policy failed to find a quick fix, the dollar could resume its previous downward slide.
The rising greenback weighed on the gold price. The Troy ounce barely changed at $ 1,976. However, the precious metal had reached another all-time high at $ 1,988, so traders also spoke of profit taking and thus of a common pattern according to record levels. The prospects remained promising for gold, it was said in the trade.
WTI and Brent up
Oil prices rose more sharply, which observers justified with the recent US corona case numbers, in addition to the surprisingly strong ISM Purchasing Managers' Index. US light oil of the grade WTI went up 1.8 percent to $ 41.01, the European reference oil of the grade Brent by 1.0 percent to $ 44.15 per barrel. After the funding cut by the Opec + group, the market had to level off – especially at the beginning of the month, according to traders. In this context, Saudi Arabia could possibly again cut prices shortly.
Climbed under the individual stocks Microsoft by 5.6 percent to a new record high. The software giant has expressed interest in parts of the criticized Chinese Tiktok app ByteDance to acquire. Such a move could persuade the US government to bury the dispute over Chinese influence.
Also the Apple-Share marked a new all-time high, still fueled by the good numbers the iPhone maker had presented last week. The stocks improved 2.5 percent, unaffected by a patent dispute filed by a Chinese company against Apple. Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology is demanding $ 1.43 billion in damages for Apple's voice assistant Siri allegedly infringing a Chinese company patent.
Siemens Healthineers want Varian Medical Systems take over at a cost of around $ 16.4 billion. For this purpose, all shares of the provider of hardware and software systems for radiation therapy are to be acquired in cash for $ 177.50 per share. Varian shot up 22 percent to $ 174.11. Marathon petroleum rose by 1 percent. The company sells its Speedway chain of petrol stations 7-Eleven for $ 21 billion, but also reported lower fuel demand as a result of the surge in new corona infections in recent weeks.
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