Wall Street is losing ground
Thursday, 04 March 2021 7:45 pm
(ABM FN-Dow Jones) US stock markets lost ground with few hours to trade on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 lost 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq lost 2.1 percent.
Investors were particularly anticipating the speech of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. He told the Wall Street Journal that the Federal Reserve would intervene when financial conditions worsen.
“I would be concerned about the shampoo market conditions or the current severe financial conditions that threaten to achieve our goals,” Powell said in a business study. He stressed that financial conditions are currently very flexible.
Still, the US ten-year interest rate has risen to 1.54 percent. Powell has previously said that rising interest rates reflect confidence in the US economic outlook.
“Powell’s sweet words do not heal. It makes sense if you say you will not allow high inflation,” Actium analyst Korn von Jail said on Twitter.
The central bank reiterated on Thursday that it would be patient with inflation this year. The central bank is counting on one more effect.
Powell reiterated during the webinar that the central bank is still “long distance” from its targets: maximum employment and stable inflation of 2 percent.
At a larger economic level, it was reported that labor costs in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2020 increased slightly less than initially thought by 6 percent. Labor productivity was 4.2 percent lower than previously expected during the same period.
Also, factory orders in the United States rose for the ninth month in a row in January. The 2.6 percent increase was slightly better than expected.
However, according to economic data, investors focused on new weekly unemployment claims on Thursday, which rose slightly to 9,000 to 745,000 claims. However, this is still slightly lower than expected. Economists counted 750,000 claims.
Anyway, this week is dominated by news about the US labor market. On Wednesday, the ATP employment report was disappointing, with fewer new jobs than expected. The official report will be released on Friday.
According to JPMorgan property management strategist Vincent Juvins, the bad news is seen positively in the official report tomorrow. This does not frighten the market, the market expert considers.
The Euro / Dollar traded at 1.1977 on Thursday. Oil prices rose nearly 6 percent after OPEC + extended its current production contracts until April.
Company News
In the fourth quarter, Groger largely outperformed analysts’ earnings forecasts, but lagged behind earnings growth forecasts. The stock rose 2 percent.
The Wall Street Journal reports that General Motors plans to build a second battery plant in the United States with partner LG Cem. The stock fell 2.4 percent.
Octa acquires customer authentication software provider Auth0 for $ 6.5 billion. The stock lost 5.3 percent.
Square lost 7.2 percent after news that it would acquire a majority stake in rapper Jay Isin’s music site Tittle for nearly $ 300 million.
The entertainment company announced Wednesday evening that Disney will close at least sixty stores in North America this year. The stock fell 3.4 percent.
Amazon.com is in talks with the National Football League about exclusive rights to several American football games. The company lost 0.7 percent.
The UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into CMA Apple following complaints that the company’s terms and conditions for developers of applications for Apple’s App Store are unfair and fair competition. The stock fell 1.8 percent.
Chevron and Exxon Mobil are up 1 to 3 percent on the back of rising oil prices.
ABM Financial News; [email protected]; Redactie: +31 (0) 20 26 28 999.
