Stock markets close tighter
US investors are breathing a sigh of relief
September 28, 2023, 11:02 p.m
At the end of a week marked by interest rate concerns, investors are venturing out of cover. In view of robust economic data, the US stock markets are turning positive. Tech stocks in particular are returning to the depots. The rally on the bond market, however, has been interrupted.
US investors put their interest rate worries aside on Thursday and dared to return to the stock market. The Dow Jones Index the standard values closed 0.4 percent higher at 33,666 points. The technology-heavy one Nasdaq advanced 0.8 percent to 13,201 points. The broad one S&P 500 increased 0.6 percent to 4299 points.
The latest economic data was robust. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an annualized 2.1 percent in the second quarter. However, an impending government shutdown in the USA is likely to cloud the outlook for the rest of the year, said stockbrokers. From October 1st, government authorities are threatened with a shutdown. Investors now await further votes from the Democratic-controlled Senate on a bipartisan short-term spending measure, it said. “With federal spending accounting for nearly 7 percent of U.S. GDP, a shutdown will slow GDP growth,” said Rabobank’s Philip Marey.
On the foreign exchange market there was US dollar index by 0.5 percent to 106.13 points. To the Bond markets yields interrupted their rapid upward trend. The ten-year US Treasuries yielded 4.620 percent, below the previous day’s level.
The ones that have recently increased significantly Oil prices, which had fueled inflation concerns, also fell. The North Sea variety Brent fell by 1.5 percent to $95.14 per barrel. The price for a barrel of US light oil WTI fell by 2.1 percent to $91.72. This partially wiped out the initial profits of oil companies. Papers from Chevron fell 0.3 percent, Exxon Mobil lost 0.6 percent.
Papers from Workday fell more than eight percent after the human resources software company cut its forecast for subscription revenue growth for the next three years. Stung in the chip sector Micron with a discount of over four percent. The memory chip maker had forecast a larger than expected loss for the first quarter.
Used car dealer documents CarMax fell by more than 13 percent. The quarterly result fell short of expectations. Shares in large tech companies like Meta, Tesla, alphabet and Nvidia However, they went back into the depots and increased by between 1.4 and 2.4 percent.