Moderna stocks on the up
Rate hike dampens sentiment on Wall Street
12/14/2022 11:23 p.m
The US Federal Reserve raises interest rates again. As a result, the most important indices on Wall Street tumbled. Only towards the end of trading do prices stabilize somewhat.
The New York stock exchanges got off lightly despite the further rate hikes planned by the US Federal Reserve. The most important indices slipped into the red after the Fed statements, but ultimately remained above their daily lows.
The leading index Dow Jones Industrial contained its loss to 0.42 percent at the close of trading at 33,966.35 points. For the broad market S&P 500 it ended up down 0.61 percent to 3995.32 points and the technology-heavy one Nasdaq 100 fell by 0.79 percent to 11,740.92 points.
At its December meeting, the Fed only raised the key interest rate by half a percentage point, as was largely expected, thereby slowing down the pace of interest rate hikes. Previously, it had raised the key interest rate four times in a row by 0.75 percentage points. However, the monetary watchdogs apparently do not intend to end their fight against inflation any time soon. For 2023, they signal even more interest rate hikes than before. Monetary policy is likely to be eased in the years that follow. According to the forecasts, however, there are signs of a higher interest rate level than the central bankers had previously promised.
Portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from QC Partners drew a mixed conclusion from the Fed’s statements: “The Fed is slowing down. The days of jumbo increases are over. The new pace is 50 basis points. That’s the good news,” emphasized the expert . “But: Everyone who counted on a quick end to the current increase cycle will be bitterly disappointed today.” Corresponding hopes had fueled a surprisingly significant weakening of inflation in the USA on Tuesday.
Among the individual values stood out Moderna up 5.8 percent to $208.95 as the Nasdaq 100 leader. The day before, the shares of the biotech company had broken the 200 dollar mark for the first time since mid-January thanks to positive study results on a combination therapy of a Moderna cancer vaccine and the tumor drug pembrolizumab from Merck & Co. And similar to the day before, the titles of the Mainz competitor Biontech rose by 4.4 percent in the wake of Moderna.
Meanwhile, the previous day’s Nasdaq brought up the rear Tesla again not in demand with a minus of more than two and a half percent. The shares of the electric car manufacturer are still at their lowest level in two years – in 2022 they have lost more than half their value so far. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi argued in a study at the end of November that the stock is still highly valued compared to traditional car manufacturers. The market value, which was around $1.3 trillion at its peak, has now fallen below $500 billion. At the same time, the three major German car manufacturers Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW together only make the equivalent of 215 billion dollars.
The red lantern in the technology-heavy selection index took over in the middle of the week Charter Communications with a price slide of over 16 percent. The telecom group is investing more than expected in its networks and thus probably has less money left over for share buybacks. JPMorgan analysts then scaled back their expectations for the company. Airline papers Delta Airlines increased by 2.8 percent after positive business signals.
Of the Euro quickly overcame a bout of weakness in response to the Fed’s comments. In New York trading, the common currency was last seen at $1.0682, roughly the same as its previous level and remaining at its highest level in over half a year. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at $1.0649. US Treasury bonds ultimately maintained their modest gains. The futures contract for ten-year bonds (T-Note Future) rose by 0.14 percent to 114.94 points. The yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 3.48 percent.