The corona pandemic is causing disastrous economic data to drive investors away from the trading markets. Almost the entire US economy is losing. But there are also profiteers from the crisis.
New York (dpa) - Disastrous economic data have driven investors away on the US stock market. In addition, there were high price losses in the energy sector. Bank stocks also mostly fell significantly after other institutes presented quarterly figures.
The New York leading index Dow Jones Industrial fell 1.86 percent to 23,504.35 points. However, the Wall Street Barometer is still 29 percent above its Corona crisis low of March 23.
The broader S&P 500 declined by 2.20 percent to 2,783.36 points in the middle of the week. The technology-heavy selection index Nasdaq 100 performed better than the standard values with minus 1.15 percent to 8591.96 points, as it had done on the previous two days.
In March, the much-noticed US retail sales plummeted as strongly as never before, burdened by the Corona crisis. In addition, the mood in the New York state of industry deteriorated to an unprecedented level in April. The Empire State Index dropped to a record low and signaled a slump in economic activity. Finally, industrial production in the USA fell as sharply in March as it had not seen since 1946, and extremely cloudy mood data also came from the US housing market.
According to the Fed, the corona crisis has hit the American economy hard. "Economic activity shrank sharply and abruptly in all US regions as a result of the pandemic," the Fed said in its economic report ("Beige Book"). An improvement is therefore not in sight. The outlook is very uncertain. Most companies surveyed would expect conditions to deteriorate further in the coming months.
After the numbers of the banks JPMorgan and Wells Fargo were not well received on the previous day, further credit houses with quarterly numbers followed on this day with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America (BofA), Citigroup and US Bancorp.
In view of the Corona crisis, they also made high provisions for bad loans, which had a negative impact on profits. Their prices fell sharply, sometimes by almost 7 percent, with Goldman Sachs being the exception with plus 0.16 percent. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo fell significantly again by almost 5 and almost 6 percent, respectively.
Oil stocks were under pressure once again. Market observers referred to a forecast by the International Energy Agency, which expects a massive drop in demand. ExxonMobil and Chevron shares listed in the Dow lost 4.60 and 2.51 percent, respectively. The shares of the chemical company Dow Inc lost 8.88 percent as index spotlight.
At the largest US healthcare provider and health insurer UnitedHealth, however, the corona pandemic weighed only slightly on profits in the first quarter. Credit Suisse analysts praised UnitedHealth's confirmation of its annual targets. At the top of the Dow, the stocks defied the weak market with an increase of 4.13 percent.
Netflix shares even rose to a record high of $ 434.98 and closed up 3.19 percent to $ 426.75. The streaming provider and film producer is considered one of the beneficiaries of the virus crisis. Because many people are currently working little or not at all due to the limitations of economic and public life, there is growing interest in entertainment available from home.
Retailer JC Penney misses an interest payment and alarm bells ringed among investors. The papers collapsed by more than 27 percent.
The euro came under considerable pressure at times, but in New York trading caught up again at $ 1.0916. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at $ 1.0903 (Tuesday: 1.0963), which cost the dollar 0.9172 (0.9122). In the US bond market, trend-setting ten-year papers climbed 1 7/32 points to 108 10/32 points. They paid 0.627 percent.