Tech stocks are under pressure
Robust US labor market fuels interest rate concerns
4/10/2023 10:56 p.m
The overall passable US labor market data from Friday triggers interest rate fears among investors. At the start of trading after the long Easter weekend, the most important indices are in the red. But in the course of the day they recover from the daily lows and in some cases even turn slightly into positive territory.
After the long weekend, investors in New York were able to react to the government’s job market report published on Friday. At first, many probably feared another rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. At the start of trading on Monday, the most important indices were in the red. Technology stocks, which are particularly sensitive to interest rates, came under pressure. Little by little, however, the fears subsided. The default values ended the day in the green.
The Dow Jones Industrial went 0.30 percent higher at 33,586.52 points from the day. The market breadth S&P 500 rose by 0.10 percent to 4109.11 points. The selection index shaped by technology stocks Nasdaq 100 lost only 0.09 percent to 13,051.23 points. At the beginning it had dropped to 12,862 points. Since the US stock exchanges were closed on Good Friday, investors were only able to react to the job market report now. In Europe, trading will only resume on Tuesday. The report continued to show robust developments in the US labor market in March. Employment growth remains at a high level. The already very low unemployment rate fell further.
The labour market had also shown itself to be very robust in the past few months. The key interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, which began more than a year ago, were hardly noticeable for a long time. Strong wage growth in particular is making it more difficult for the Fed to fight inflation. Recently, however, there have been increasing signs of a slight slowdown in the labor market. For example, the number of vacancies in February fell below ten million for the first time since 2021.
Apple stocks lost almost 1.6 percent at the end of the Dow. According to an analysis, the technology group was particularly badly affected by a significant drop in demand for PCs in the first quarter. ExxonMobil fell by 0.4 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US oil giant led the fracking company Pioneer Natural Resources Preliminary talks about a possible purchase. Its shares jumped 5.8 percent.
The shares of the electric car manufacturer Tesla lost 0.3 percent. The company has again reduced prices for all models. Company boss Elon Musk wants to forego profitability in favor of increasing sales figures. However, the last price reduction campaign for the entire range quickly fizzled out.