Wall Street in a rally mood: Apple and Amazon take off

The market is convinced: there will be a clear result in the US election. This seems to banish the risk of political turbulence, even if Joe Biden, the favorite, is planning tax increases. Things are going remarkably well for two giants: Apple and Amazon are making strong gains.

Price gains in technology stocks like Apple and Amazon have given the US stock exchanges a strong start to the week. Traders spoke of a positive "Biden Effect". The Dow Jones Index gained 0.9 percent to 28,838 points, thereby expanding its starting gains. S&P 500 climbed 1.6 percent to 2533 points. The index of the technology exchange Nasdaq soared by 2.6 percent to 11,876 points and was at times as high as it had not been for almost six weeks.

The closer the US presidential election draws, the clearer the polling lead of challenger Joe Biden over incumbent Donald Trump seems to be. This seemed to dispel concerns about a tight result and subsequent political turbulence. A clear result would take the political risks off the market, it said. Investors also seemed to have made their peace with Biden, even if he had announced tax increases. But after Biden's election victory, the Democrats could launch a major stimulus package if the Democrats also win a majority in the Senate. However, an agreement between Republicans and Democrats before the election was a long way off.

"The market believes that help comes (…) no matter who the president is," said Robert Pavlik, chief strategist at SlateStone Wealth. "She's probably coming in about a month." Brokers also hope that Biden will strike more conciliatory tones in the conflict with China if he wins the election. In addition, they expect a larger infrastructure program to get the economy, which is badly suffering from the Corona crisis, going again.

Everything works for Apple

Technology stocks were noticeably firm, with the S&P 500 industry index increasing by 5.3 percent. "The technology sector did well today (…). This indicates that the market no longer expects an economic stimulus package before the election," said investment strategist Don Calcagni of Mercer Advisors. The technology sector is considered to be the winner of the corona crisis. The belief in imminent economic aid should have supported the standard values, it said in the trade.

Apple shares topped the Dow, up 6.4 percent. The company has announced an event for Tuesday. Most analysts assume that the latest iPhone with 5G technology will then be presented. Theoretically, the device can then surf the Internet up to 20 times as fast as previous devices. So far, however, the infrastructure has not been designed for this, said Boris Metodiev from Strategy Analytics: "It's like having a Ferrari, but driving around slowly in your home village because the roads don't allow faster speeds." In addition, the iPhone manufacturer was successful in the dispute with Epic Games in court. In addition, the RBC had raised the price target.

Other technology heavyweights such as Amazon also grew. The online retailer invites you to "Prime Day" on Tuesday and Wednesday, during which the company is offering discounts for its Prime customers. In advance, he was able to improve by 4.8 percent.

Facebook was also up by 4.3 percent, while Alphabet gained 3.6 percent. According to a recommendation from Deutsche Bank, Twitter shares rose 5.1 percent, their highest level since April 2015.

Boeing are lagging behind

The stocks of the aircraft manufacturer Boeing lagged behind the overall market with a wafer-thin plus. At an industry conference, CEO Jude Bricker of the low-cost airline Sun Country explained that Boeing's offer for the delivery of new 737 Max machines could not keep up with the offers from the used market. Due to the global slump in air traffic in the wake of the Corona crisis, huge capacities are being taken from the market and aircraft are therefore being decommissioned. This oversupply of used machines depresses prices on the secondary market, especially since there are currently hardly any buyers for these aircraft.

Investors are also increasingly focusing on the reporting season. The banks JPMorgan and Citigroup will kick off on Tuesday. Overall, analysts assume that the profits of the companies in the S&P 500 have declined by a good fifth compared to the previous year. This means that the slump is less than in spring, when the decline – mainly due to the consequences of the virus crisis – was around 30 percent. In Frankfurt, the Dax was 0.7 percent firmer at 13,138 points.