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Stock market:
Fluctuations are increasing
Photo: DANIEL ROLAND/ AFP
The rollercoaster ride of the German stock market continues.
The Dax gave way again on Friday and recently increased its losses to around 2 percent.
Most recently, the leading German index fell back below the 15,300 point mark.
Investors shy away from longer-term commitments for fear of being caught on the wrong foot, said portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from investment advisor QC Partners.
"Setbacks are used for purchases. However, profits are quickly taken in recoveries."
When it came to companies, Henkel took center stage. The consumer goods group increased sales in 2021 by 7.8 percent and profit by 9.2 percent. For 2022, the “Persil” provider promised revenue growth of two to four percent. The numbers for the past year are okay, said a broker, but the outlook is disappointing. Henkel shares fell by almost seven percent, as much as the last time the Corona stock market crashed in March 2020.
According to market analyst Edward Moya from broker Oanda, stock market activity is likely to be characterized by major fluctuations for some time to come.
In addition to "buy the dip", the bargain hunters have a new motto, namely "sell the rally".
So they always looked for opportunities when prices fell, but not for longer-term investments.
Stock market volatility remains high after the Fed unveiled plans for rate hikes from March.
Meanwhile, Apple's stock has risen significantly: Apple set new record numbers in the fourth quarter despite the global chip shortage.
The quarterly profit reached 34.6 billion dollars (31 billion euros).
That was a good fifth more than a year earlier and lifted sentiment in the US tech sector.
Decline in consumer spending expected
Among other things, US consumer spending is on the agenda, from which investors hope to draw conclusions about the pace of the planned interest rate hikes.
Analysts expect a decline of 0.6 percent for December.
Private consumption is the mainstay of the world's largest economy.
On this side of the Atlantic, the barometers for economic and consumer sentiment are due for publication.
Experts predict a decline to 114.5 points for the former and an unchanged result at minus 8.5 points for the latter.
They predict a minus of 0.3 percent for the gross domestic product of the German economy in the past quarter.
In addition, other company balance sheets keep stockbrokers on their toes.
Among others, the AEG mother Electrolux and the fashion retailer H&M open their books.
In the USA, the construction machinery manufacturer
Caterpillar
and the consumer goods group Colgate-Palmolive are presenting figures.
Asia's stock exchanges mostly in the plus
Encouraging balance sheets from some tech companies are drawing investors back to Asian stock markets.
Japan's Nikkei Index and South Korea's Kospi both rose about two percent on Friday to 26,717 and 2663 points, respectively.
The Chinese stock exchange Shanghai, on the other hand, was unable to maintain its initial gains and lost almost one percent.
Technology stocks were in particularly high demand after Apple had presented record quarterly sales.
The shares of the iPhone provider then rose in after-hours US business by five percent.
Hynix stocks rose 6.2 percent in Seoul.
The chip manufacturer earned as much in the past quarter as it did three years ago.
In China, CATL forecast a profit increase of 151 to 196 percent to the equivalent of 1.97 to 2.33 billion euros for 2021.
The papers of the world's largest supplier of electric car batteries then gained 3.2 percent.
In Asian currency trading, the dollar gained 0.1 percent to 115.42 yen and slipped 0.1 percent to 6.3612 yuan.
Compared to the Swiss currency, it was hardly changed at CHF 0.9302.
At the same time, the euro rose by 0.1 percent to $1.1150 and was almost unchanged at CHF 1.0371.
Sterling gained 0.1 percent to $1.3397.
US: Dow and Nasdaq weaker
Unanswered questions about US monetary policy also unsettled US investors on Wall Street on Thursday.
The US standard value index
Dow
Jones
closed on Thursday with little change at 34,160 points.
The tech
-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.4 percent to 13,352 points
.
The broad S&P 500 lost 0.5 percent to 4326 points.
Economic data prevented even larger price losses.
The Fed agreed investors for March on the first of likely several rate hikes.
That was generally expected, said Thomas Hayes, manager at wealth manager Great Hill.
The big unknown, on the other hand, is the planned reduction in securities holdings.
"We don't know how it will be implemented and what the impact will be."
At the same time, the renewed decline in initial jobless claims allayed fears of an economic slowdown.
In addition, the world's largest economy grew 5.7 percent in 2021, the strongest since 1984. "The second half of the fourth quarter was characterized by the omicron variant of the corona virus," said Mike Loewengart, chief investment strategist at brokerage firm E*Trade.
"It is encouraging that the economy is meeting this challenge so easily."
Dollar index at 18-month high
The dollar index, which tracks rates against major currencies, was boosted by prospects of US monetary tightening.
At times it rose to a one and a half year high of 97.299 points.
At the same time, the situation on the bond market eased.
Investors turned to US bonds again, pushing yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury to 1.785 percent.
Netflix recovers from crash: Hedge fund Pershing is now the largest single shareholder
When it came to technology stocks, Netflix was one of the favorites, with a price increase of almost ten percent at times.
This is the biggest price jump in a year.
At the end of trading, it was still enough for a premium of 7.5 percent.
In a letter to clients, billionaire William Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square said it had taken advantage of the online video store's recent price falls to buy nearly $1 billion in shares.
Pershing is now Netflix's largest shareholder with a 20 percent stake.
In the past few days, the papers had fallen by around 30 percent at times due to a gloomy outlook.
Bitcoin is hovering around $37,000
Cryptocurrencies fell slightly on Friday compared to the previous day.
A bitcoin in the morning cost almost 37,000 US dollars after it was quoted at 38,000 dollars the day before.
Since its record high of $67,000, Bitcoin had temporarily lost more than half of its market capitalization before a first recovery began on Tuesday.
Trading remains volatile.
Meanwhile, the narrative that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin work as an inflation hedge because the number of bitcoins is limited has been proven to be false.
As investors seek refuge in gold, selling pressure on bitcoin and other cybercurrencies has escalated in recent weeks, falling even more than stock market prices.
Oil prices near seven-year high
On the other hand, some investors cashed in on the crude oil market and pushed down the price of the US grade WTI by 0.7 percent.
At $86.80 a barrel (159 liters), however, it stayed within touching distance of its most recent seven-and-a-half-year high.
The reason for this is the ongoing tension between Russia and Ukraine, said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.
"Concerns remain that in the event of a military escalation, Russian oil and gas supplies could be disrupted."
Against this backdrop, shares in oil companies such as Exxon and Chevron gained up to two percent.
At the beginning of the week, oil prices were weighed down significantly by the poor mood on the stock markets.
Notwithstanding, oil prices have recently retreated somewhat from the seven-year highs they marked last week.
A scarce supply with an increasing demand ensures the basic upward pressure on prices.
The current omicron wave is dampening the development, but far less than previous corona waves.
Crucially, the short-term health consequences of the omicron variant of the virus are usually less severe.
With news agencies
