Frankfurt – 30/08/2021
Happy Tech
Easing interest rate fears continued to drive New York’s Wall Street, particularly technology stocks. Both the broad-based S&P 500, which includes both technology and standard stocks, and the Nasdaq technology indices reached further highs, while traditional stocks lagged.
Other global markets reflected a similar trend today.
US Markets at a glance
The Dow Jones hovered around the zero lines for a long time, and in the end, the stock market barometer went into the evening with a discount of 0.16 per cent at 35,399.90 points. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ Composite set a new record at the start of the week: At its peak, it went up to 15,288.08 index points. At the end of trading, the plus was still 0.90 per cent – the index closed at 15,265.89 index points. The S&P 500 index, a key measure of performance among institutional investors, closed 0.43 per cent higher at 4,528 points. At 4,537 points, the index marked another record high in the day, as it had done on many previous trading days.
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The so-called Powell effect slowly subsided after a broadly upward trend on the US stock market on Friday. Last week, the Fed Chairman had announced that rising inflation was still only a temporary problem. Nevertheless, inflation concerns are once again spreading among market participants. In addition, trading was quiet due to a thin news flow.
Apple led the index with a daily gain of 3.04 per cent to 153.12 dollars, a record high. The high for the day was only slightly higher at 153.49 dollars. The stock market value of the cult brand is thus over 2.5 trillion dollars.
Far East Markets at a glance
At the beginning of the week, the Asian markets moved slightly upwards. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index gained 0.54 per cent to 27,789.29 points, while on the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite ended 0.17 per cent higher at 3,528.15 points. In Hong Kong, the leading index Hang Seng rose 0.52 per cent to 25,539.54 units.
Stock markets in Asia started the week on a positive note. One of the reasons for the price gains may have been the statements by US Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell at the central bank meeting in Jackson Hole. Powell had not given a clear signal when the Fed might start reducing its bond purchases (tapering).
European Markets at a glance
The European stock indices started the new week cautiously. The EuroSTOXX 50 made only slow progress after starting almost unchanged. At the close, it was enough for a small gain of 0.19 per cent at 4,198.80 points.
The DAX was marginally firmer at the opening of trading and moved only slightly. At the close of trading,t it ultimately ended 0.22 per cent higher at 15,887.31 points. The TecDAX also went into the evening with a significant gain of 0.7 per cent to 3,946.76 points.
Most recently, the speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the central bank conference in Jackson Hole on Friday afternoon had put investors in a good mood. According to the central bankers, the exit from the extremely loose monetary policy will take place cautiously, which is generally to the investors’ liking.
Forex, gold, oil and crypto
The euro remained in a narrow trading range on Monday. It was last traded at 1.1801 US dollars on the foreign exchange market, slightly lower than in early European business.
Oil prices changed little on Monday. Only in midday trading did the prices slip a little more into the loss zone at times, but they were able to recover by the afternoon. The last price for a barrel of North Sea Brent was 72.66 US dollars, a marginal 4 cents less than on Friday. The price for American West Texas Intermediate fell by 15 cents to 68.59 dollars per barrel.
Gold could not hold on to its gains from the previous week, and the price for the troy ounce fell by about $5 to $1,811.
Cryptocurrencies continued to move in a well-defined range, showing a 3-5 per cent up 3-5 per cent down the pattern for a few days. Today, Bitcoin lost 3.7 per cent to $46,800 after reaching a daily high of $49,400. Cardano, Binance Coin, Dogecoin, XRP and many other important digital assets slipped by around 3 per cent, while Ethereum posted a marginal gain of 0.5 per cent to $3,215. The biggest gainer was once again Solana, adding 17.2 per cent to $112.
Corporate and world economic news
Economic data
Collective wage earnings in Germany rose faster in the second quarter of 2021. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office, they increased by 1.9 (previous quarter: 1.3) per cent compared to the same quarter of the last year. The result considers collectively agreed basic remuneration and special payments determined by collective agreements, such as one-off payments, special annual payments or collectively agreed on additional expenses. As Destatis further reported, the year-on-year increase excluding special payments was 1.4 per cent. In the same period, consumer prices rose by 2.4 per cent.
Economic sentiment in the eurozone fell in August after the indicator marked a record high in July. The composite economic sentiment index offered by the European Commission fell to 117.5 points from 119.0 in the previous month. Economists had forecast the index to fall to 118.0 points. The indicator calculated for the European Union (EU) declined to 116.5 points from 118.0. In the EU, the economic sentiment was dampened by a decline in confidence in the services sector, industry, and consumers. In contrast, confidence rebounded in construction and remained virtually unchanged in retail trade. Among the largest EU economies, sentiment fell sharply in France (minus 4.5) and the Netherlands (minus 3.0), and to a lesser extent in Italy (minus 1.9), Poland (minus 1.7) and Spain (minus 1.2). Sentiment in Germany (minus 0.3) was only slightly dampened. Industrial confidence in the eurozone fell to 13.7 points from 14.5 in the previous month. Economists had expected a decline to 12.7. Consumer confidence for the single currency area was reported to have fallen to minus 5.3 points from minus 4.4 in the previous month. This was in line with the first release and also with economists’ forecasts.
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