NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – One day before the central bankers’ meeting in Jackson Hole, investors on the US stock exchanges shied away from a clear positioning. Economic data such as incoming orders for durable goods, which fell short of expectations, had hardly any impact on stock market activity.
After its recent slide on Wednesday, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) fluctuated around its closing price from the previous day and most recently gained 0.05 percent to 32,924.92 points. The other indices fared only slightly better: The broader S&P 500 rose 0.17 percent to 4135.69 points and the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 rose 0.30 percent to 12,919.86 points.
We are still waiting for new signals on further USmonetary policy. Investors are hoping that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole on Friday may include those. At the same time, it is still expected that the Federal Reserve will maintain its strict tightening course in order to get the high inflation under control. The only puzzle is whether the key interest rate will be raised by 0.5 or 0.75 percentage points in September.
“The fact is that Jackson Hole has occasionally been used in the past as a platform to send clear messages to the markets that were not always the ones expected,” recalls broker Oanda analyst Craig Erlam. “It’s interesting that fear of what might be said seems to be affecting sentiment and markets much more than what has actually been said over the past few weeks.”
Before the software group Salesforce and the graphics processor manufacturer NVIDIA presented figures following the US stock market closed, the individual stocks Peloton (Peloton Interactive), Bed Bath & Beyond and Farfetch stood out with double-digit percentage price jumps.
The sporting goods specialist Peloton also wants to sell its fitness equipment at the world’s largest online retailer Amazon and announced a corresponding cooperation for the US market. Peloton shares then rose by almost 20 percent, while the Amazon price was relatively unimpressed with a good half percent plus.
Retailer Bed Bath & Beyond (Bed BathBeyond) continued its steep roller coaster ride, gaining 13 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is negotiating loans. Some time ago, the shares were targeted by short sellers who are betting on falling prices. The fluctuations are considerable. After a rapid price increase in the past week, it went down once more just as quickly and steeply.
Farfetch(Farfetch) stocks jumped 22 percent. The Swiss luxury goods group Richemont is selling most of its majority stake in the online trading platform Yoox-Net-a-Porter (YNAP) to Farfetch. This represents an excellent transaction, especially for the buyer, wrote analyst Luca Solca from the analysis company Bernstein Research.
Intuit’s shares advanced 4.3 percent on the Nasdaq 100 following unexpectedly strong quarterly results from the tax software company.
On the other hand, the shares of Nordstrom and Advance Auto Parts posted heavy losses. Although the fashion retailer exceeded expectations for the second quarter, it disappointed with lower-than-expected full-year targets. Nordstrom shares fell 19 percent.
The car parts dealer’s papers lost more than percent following Advance Auto Parts had lowered its annual targets when presenting its quarterly figures – and more clearly than some observers expected./gl/he