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Under pressure:
The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has lost around 40 percent of its value since its record high in early November
Photo: CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH / EPA
Times on the stock market are getting rougher: in the field of tension between positive economic signals and worries about faster rate hikes, the US benchmark index Dow Jones Industrial barely moved on balance in the first week of trading in 2022. Despite a strong start to the year, the best-known Wall Street index fell 0.3 percent in the first week of trading of the year. The S&P 500, which had reached a record high at the beginning of the year, also fell slightly on a weekly basis. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 saw a sharp decline in the first week of trading: the tech index lost 4.5 percent of its value. Tech investors worry that rising interest rates could slow the momentum in the growth industry.
Highly valued stock market favorites such as Tesla, Nvidia and Apple in particular came under pressure.
Tesla even lost almost 15 percent of its value within five trading days.
On January 3, the stock hit a record high of $ 1,200 and is now hovering just above the $ 1,000 per share mark.
The official job report was awaited with great interest after the very strong data from the private service provider ADP on Wednesday.
In terms of job creation, it was again weaker than forecast, but against the background of the unemployment rate, which has fallen to 3.9 percent and the strong wage increases, the US Federal Reserve should see the decided, faster pace in reducing bond purchases confirmed , commented economist Ralf Umlauf from Helaba.
On the corporate side, the shares of T-Mobile US attracted attention because they were at the bottom of the S&P 100 with minus 5.0 percent. The subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom attracted many customers in the US in the fourth quarter, but it expects 2022 with an industry-wide cooling of the recent strong influx of new customers.
Euro gains against the dollar
The euro extended its gains in US trading, rising to $ 1.1362 by the close of trading on Wall Street.
In early trading in Frankfurt, it was quoted just under $ 1.13.
The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.1298 (Thursday: 1.1315) dollars.
The dollar cost 0.8851 (0.8838) euros.
On the US bond market, the futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note-Future) fell 0.20 percent to 128.33 points.
In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds rose to around 1.77 percent, the highest level in two years.
Dax on a weekly basis just in the plus
Despite the significant price losses on Thursday and Friday, the German leading index
Dax
saved a slight plus on a weekly basis.
On Thursday, the stock exchanges around the world gave way due to speculation that US monetary policy would be tightened more quickly.
In addition, disappointing US job data are also causing nervousness on the US stock exchanges.
For the first week of trading in 2022, the Dax was still up 0.4 percent, as it had grown significantly at the start of the year.
On Wednesday, the Dax missed its record high of just under 16,300 by just a few points.
Since then, things have clearly declined.
The leading Eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 lost 0.44 percent on Friday to 4305.83 points.
The French Cac 40 saw a similarly moderate decline.
The British FTSE 100, on the other hand, gained somewhat.
Bank stocks continued to benefit from the prospect of higher interest rates, which benefited their earnings.
Deutsche Bank, Allianz and Commerzbank were among the winners of the first week of trading in the Dax.
Bitcoin continues to slide
Bitcoin went down at the start of the year. On December 27, the cryptocurrency was still trading at just under 52,000 US dollars. Now the cyber currency threatens to slide below the 40,000 US dollar mark. Bitcoin has lost almost 20 percent of its value within eight trading days. The crypto currency Ethereum even lost almost 25 percent of its value. The oldest and most important cyber motto is now behaving similarly to other risky asset classes, said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at the brokerage house AvaTrade. If these give way, Bitcoin will also come under pressure and vice versa. Bitcoin and Ether are now both at their lowest level in more than 3 months.
The prospect of tighter monetary policy in the US has spoiled many investors' appetite for riskier investments like Bitcoin, the market said.
There are also different positions on the future of cryptocurrencies.
The war of faith in the crypto scene is also going on between the two currencies Bitcoin and Ether.
Bitcoin has now lost more than 40 percent of its value since its record high of $ 69,000 in early November.
The range of fluctuation also remains high - many investors shy away from assets with similarly high volatility.
In addition, the crisis in Kazakhstan has also increased uncertainty in the crypto scene.
Numerous crypto miners are active in Kazakhstan because of the low energy prices.
Because of the political protests, the leadership in Kazakhstan interrupted the Internet last week - significantly less computing power was available to the miners and the global Bitcoin network.
Asia's stock exchanges on the move
Asian markets bounced back from their two-day losses on Friday and are up.
Investors initially waited to see whether the US labor market data due later in the day would necessitate a faster hike in US interest rates.
"A major market driver this week was the rise in US yields after the Federal Reserve's minutes were released for December," said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.
Minutes indicated that a tight labor market and sustained inflation could force the Federal Reserve to hike rates more sharply this year.
Oil price hike ended
The US data put an end to the rise in oil prices for the time being.
The Brent variety from the North Sea was quoted hardly changed at $ 82.02 per barrel (159 liters).
The price for a barrel of the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was $ 79.14.
A resumption of the rally is likely, said analyst Louise Dickson from the brokerage house Rystad.
The reasons for this are production stoppages due to the unrest in Kazakhstan and delivery bottlenecks in Libya due to maintenance work on a pipeline.
In addition, the fear of a drop in demand due to the rapid spread of the Omikron variant of the corona virus has given way, interjected analyst Ricardo Evangelista from the brokerage firm ActivTrades.
With news agencies