The US stock markets have recently been going down again slightly – an attempt to recover has failed miserably. The uncertainty with regard to interest rate developments is too great. But there are also beneficiaries: the shares of the oil companies are doing splendidly.
A tentative recovery attempt on the US stock markets after the recent downturn has failed. Weak US economic data was only able to alleviate the fear of further rising interest rates in early trading for a short time. After a moderately friendly start, the leading index Dow Jones quickly turned negative again – in the end it lost 0.5 percent to 32,910 points. For the market-wide S
The Nasdaq 100, which is stocked with many technology stocks, did little better with a minus of 0.1 percent to 12,882 points. While tech companies are often more dependent on credit to fund their growth than companies in more traditional industries, they have a lot to lose when interest rates rise. However, the stock exchange barometer has already lost 21 percent since the beginning of the year and thus significantly more than the two standard value indices.
Business in the US private sector fell for the second straight month in August, the S
The market has feared for days that the US Federal Reserve could adopt an aggressive tone at the international central bankers’ meeting in Jackson Hole, which begins on Thursday, with regard to further interest rate hikes in order to get inflation under control. According to the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, investors are likely to be following the speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday with suspense. Further monetary tightening threatens to stall the world’s largest economy, which by definition has slipped into recession for the past two quarters. Rising interest rates also tend to make equities less attractive than fixed income securities such as bonds.
In terms of individual stocks, oil company stocks were among the winners. Chevron rose 3.2 percent and ExxonMobil rose 4.2 percent. They benefited from the rise in oil prices. Saudi Arabia brought production cuts by the oil cartel Opec and its allies into play on Monday. According to insiders, while such a move is not imminent, it may be necessary if sanctions on Iran are lifted as part of the nuclear talks and additional oil comes onto the market.
Zoom shares, on the other hand, came under pressure, losing 16.5 percent. The provider of software for video conferencing is feeling the effects of increasing competition and, after a slump in growth in the past quarter, lowered its forecasts for the full year. “Zoom remains a ‘show me’ company where the company sees great potential but the market doesn’t want to believe it,” said Rishi Jaluria, software expert at RBC Capital Markets.
The euro was able to stabilize somewhat thanks to the weak US data: After another 20-year low, the common currency climbed to $0.9967. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 0.9927 (Monday: 1.0001) dollars; the dollar had cost 1.0074 (0.9999) euros.
