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Jerome Powell:
The Fed rate hike was expected.
Following the Fed's decision, the US stock exchanges rose sharply
Photo: TOM WILLIAMS / AFP
The US stock exchanges reacted to the interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve Bank on Wednesday evening with significant gains.
The Dow Jones extended gains to 2.5 percent in late trade, while the tech index Nasdaq 100 even gained 3 percent.
On the crypto markets, Bitcoin posted significant gains of around 6 percent.
The Dax should also start trading with profits on Thursday.
As was widely expected, monetary authorities in the USA raised the key interest rate significantly by 0.5 percentage points - it is now in a range of 0.75 to 1.0 percent.
The background to the step is the high level of inflation, which is currently more pronounced than it has been for a good 40 years.
The central bank had already initiated the turnaround in interest rates in March with the first interest rate hike in the corona pandemic.
In addition, the Fed wants to melt down its balance sheet, which has been bloated by crisis measures.
On Monday, the Dow Jones had temporarily slipped to its lowest level since the start of the Ukraine war on February 24.
The picture on the Nasdaq also brightened up again, although technology companies are particularly vulnerable to rising interest rates given their rather high level of debt.
Dax over 14,000 points again
The Dax had previously been at 13,970 points on Xetra, but climbed well above the 14,000 mark again in late trading.
The MDax of medium-sized stocks rose again in the evening, as did the leading eurozone index, the EuroStoxx 50.
Five Dax companies with quarterly figures
In the reporting season things got down to business in the middle of the week.
The healthcare group Fresenius SE
, its dialysis subsidiary
Fresenius Medical Care
(FMC), the medical technology
manufacturer Siemens Healthineers
, the insurer
Hannover Re
and
Volkswagen
published quarterly figures
from the Dax alone .
With an increase of 3.1 percent,
Fresenius was one of the biggest winners in the Dax, while
FMC
was one of the biggest losers with minus 4 percent.
Operationally, Fresenius' business was "not as bad as feared," wrote analyst Daniel Grigat from the Stifel investment company.
At FMC, analyst David Adlington from JPMorgan criticized the quality of the results, since, among other things, profits from the sale of clinics were included.
After a robust quarter, Siemens Healthineers
again increased its forecasts for the current fiscal year.
The titles gained 1.1 percent.
In view of the high price losses of the former corona crisis winners in the consumer sector, above all
Delivery Hero
and
Hellofresh
, their attempts at stabilization are now in question again after the recent moderate recovery.
With the lifting of the corona restrictions for gastronomy and retail, the industry is missing an important course driver.
Delivery Hero fell by 6.4 percent and Hellofresh brought up the rear in the
Dax
with minus 10.1 percent .
US investors relieved after rate hike
Equity investors react with relief to the US Federal Reserve's rate hike in line with expectations.
The leading indices
Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500
each rose.
Lyft disappoints shareholders, Moderna stock gains
On the company side, there were again many quarterly reports on the agenda on Wednesday.
The driving service
provider Lyft
brought its shareholders a severe disappointment with a gloomy outlook, the papers fell by 26 percent before the market and thus also burdened the competition.
While Uber had a better outlook, the stock couldn't escape the Lyft pressures and fell 5.3 percent.
From China, the New York-listed
Didi Global
share is still at home in the Lyft industry.
Here the papers slipped by 4.5 percent.
In addition to the bad industry news from the US competition, reference was made to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating the 2021 IPO.
Because of the US note, Chinese regulators are already focusing on the company.
Moderna
had better news to report, with
a premarket gain of 4.6 percent.
Thanks to the corona vaccine, the biotech company continues to earn brilliantly, Moderna earned more than three times as much in the first quarter as in the previous year.
But there was also great relief because the flattening sales forecast for the corona vaccine remains unchanged, even if the pandemic subsides in western regions.
The shares of the chip group
AMD
, the coffee house chain Starbucks and the accommodation broker Airbnb also increased between 4.0 and 7.0 percent according to pre-market figures.
AMD convinced investors with a jump in sales and profits and the outlook for the second quarter.
Starbucks cited strong quarterly sales and an upgrade from Evercore ISI experts.
The first quarter was also surprisingly good for Airbnb, it said
Bitcoin up
Bitcoin, the world's best-known digital currency, has recently also been listed significantly higher.
The cryptocurrency has been under pressure since the beginning of the year.
Bitcoin hit a record high of $69,000 in November last year.
Oil prices are increasing
Oil prices rose on Wednesday.
Most recently, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost 106.12 US dollars.
That was $1.15 more than the day before.
The price of a barrel of US West Texas Intermediate was up $1.26 to $103.67.
Oil prices were boosted by the prospect of an EU embargo on Russian crude.
However, according to a proposal by the EU Commission, general transitional periods are planned.
In addition, the plan will have to be approved by all EU countries, which is uncertain.
According to experts, the medium-term price reaction on the oil markets will depend primarily on whether Russia can sell its oil elsewhere and whether there is sufficient capacity worldwide to replace Russian oil that fails.
In the course of the day, the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve is likely to come into focus.
It is expected to continue the turnaround in interest rates that began in March with a large hike of 0.5 percentage points in the evening.
It would be the sharpest rate hike in more than two decades.
The background to the tightening of monetary policy in the world's largest economy is inflation, which is at its highest level in over 40 years.
One reason for this is energy prices.
With news agencies
