Waiting for US labor market data
Tech stocks are inspiring Wall Street
December 7, 2023, 10:33 p.m
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Tech giants help Wall Street gain momentum. Google’s parent company Alphabet in particular is seeing price fireworks, as is AMD – possibly triggered by the AI hype. Meanwhile, the data on the US labor market is eagerly awaited.
Share price increases at Google parent Alphabet and other tech giants drove Wall Street on Thursday. The Dow Jones Index the standard values were slightly up at 36,108 points. The broader one S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent to 4585 points and the technology exchange Nasdaq 1.4 percent to 14,343 jobs.
alphabet jumped 6.4 percent. The papers from Apple, Nvidia and Intel each gained around 1.5 percent in their wake. Alphabet presented a new model of artificial intelligence (AI) on Wednesday. “It’s basically a tale of two stock markets today – one with technology stocks and one with everything else,” said Ken Mahoney, managing director of asset manager Mahoney in New Jersey. “While Alphabet does not rely on AI revenue, the technology has a positive impact on revenue.”
Investors also agreed AMD a. The chip manufacturer’s shares gained a good eight percent after an optimistic forecast for the market for its AI processors.
Investors took part in individual stocks outside the tech sector Walgreens Boots Alliance to. The pharmacy chain’s stocks rose by 8.5 percent. Walgreens Boots is expanding its offering of Covid-19 and flu testing and treatment for the winter season. Were also in demand Bristol-Myers Squibb. The pharmaceutical company’s papers advanced by a good two percent. The company’s board of directors has approved an additional $3 billion share repurchase plan.
Waiting for US labor market data
Investors are now eagerly awaiting the US government’s official labor market report scheduled for Friday. Experts expect a job increase of 180,000 after 150,000 in October.
The US Federal Reserve is trying to curb inflation by raising interest rates and also cool down the hot labor market. The publication at the end of the week could be one of the last before the Fed meeting on December 13th, which could persuade central bankers to raise interest rates again.
The hope of falling interest rates had recently triggered a rally on the stock markets. However, many analysts consider this to be exaggerated. “The Fed certainly has no plans to cut interest rates any time soon. Their future moves will depend on the data,” said Joe Saluzzi, manager at broker Themis Trading. Konstantin Oldenburger, analyst at broker CMC Markets, agreed. “An overly dynamic change in monetary policy could ultimately turn from a blessing into a curse for the stock markets if investors price in more and faster interest rate cuts.”
The Dollar index fell by 0.7 percent to 103,472 points. In return, the euro gained 0.4 percent to 1.0803 dollars.
Oil prices continue to fall
After a brief recovery, prices on the oil market continued their downward trend. The North Sea variety Brent and the US light oil WTI each fell by around half a percent to $73.93 and $69.16 per barrel (159 liters), respectively.
Investors remained concerned about sluggish demand and the economic slowdown in the US and China. Investors were also skeptical about OPEC+’s decision on production volumes last week. Since the agreed supply cuts are voluntary, analysts say it is questionable whether producers will fully implement them or not. “OPEC+ is probably no longer so satisfied with its latest agreement,” stated Craig Erlam, analyst at the Oanda trading house.