AEX is closing higher
Tuesday 16 March 2021 5:49 p.m.
(ABM FN-Dow Jones) The Amsterdam Stock Exchange closed higher on Tuesday. At 683.65 points, the AEX index rose 0.7 percent.
“Investors seem to have become accustomed to a somewhat higher structural level of the interest rate,” says economist Luc Appen Van Lancucht Kempen.
The expected economic recovery, along with the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus, will have the effect of higher inflation and with it higher interest rates, which has been bothering stock markets lately. There are concerns that this will mean that the Federal Reserve will have to tighten its monetary policy sooner than expected.
On Wednesday evening, the Fed will publish its new interest rate decision, with no policy changes expected.
According to Aben, the plot of the new bullet point, the well-known “Point on the Horizon”, will certainly be interesting.
In December, the median forecast of monetary policymakers was that key interest rates would remain in the current range until the end of 2023.
So far, the US central bank has not been fooled by rising bond yields and interest rate concerns in the equity markets. Chairman Jerome Powell recently said that the Fed might step in when financial conditions tighten, but it is still very accommodating at the moment.
On the macroeconomic front, focus on Tuesday on US retail sales in February. Last month, these were down 3 percent compared to January, when a decrease of just 0.4 percent was expected.
Aben van Lanchot Kempen noted that retail sales in January showed another strong increase of 7.6 percent “thanks to financial support from the $ 900 billion budget package at the end of December.”
Moreover, the German ZEW Index rose in March. The index level was 76.6 better than the expected 74.0.
The EUR / USD was trading at 1.1892 on Tuesday. Oil is 1.6 percent cheaper.
Gainers and losers
Just like on Monday, tech stocks did well again at AEX on Tuesday. ASMI and ASML won 1.5 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively, and Aden and Prosus each closed with around 1 per cent in the green.
The AEX leader was Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, with a gain of nearly 5 percent, while Just Eat Takeaway ended the row with a loss of nearly 2 percent.
Technology was also popular at AMX: Besi won 2.6 percent, but had to let Arkadis go, which finished up 4.5 percent as leader.
Fugro and the OCI ended up in the lower ranks, with losses of around 2%.
Accsys led the way in small stocks. The share increased by more than 8 percent. Sligrow and Kendrion each lost 2.6 percent.
Wall Street Ranking
On Wall Street there was a divided picture about Castle Amsterdam. The Dow Jones index fell slightly from the record set on Monday, while the S&P 500 index partially rose, hitting its record slightly. The Nasdaq rose 0.6 percent.
ABM Financial News; [email protected]; Revised text: +31 (0) 20 26 28999.
