The stock market crash in Asia and Europe extended to the United States on Thursday at first. Wall Street’s major indexes fell between 0.65 to 0.75 percent at the opening at 15:30 Norwegian time.
After two hours of trading, the Nasdaq turned a cautious higher.
This is what it looks like on Wall Street just before 5:30 p.m. Norwegian time:
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.37 percent.
- The broad S&P 500 index is roughly flat.
- The Nasdaq tech index rose 0.2 percent.
Lower oil prices weighed on ExxonMobil, which fell 3.2%. Chevron shares fell 2.8 percent.
Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius wrote in a note that the consequences of the delta variable on growth and inflation are greater than they expected, according to CNBC.
“Consumption by going out to eat, travel and other services is likely to decline in August, although we expect the decline to be modest and short. Production continues to suffer from disruptions in the supply chain, particularly in the auto industry, and this will likely mean Less inventory buildup in the third quarter,” he writes.
Uncertainty about support purchases
Leading stock market indices were down at closing time on Wednesday. The market turmoil came after the US Federal Reserve released a report on its previous interest rate meeting on Wednesday.
The Fed meeting minutes indicate that a reduction in the volume of support purchases in the market may come earlier than initially expected.
The stock purchase subsidy is being used as a tool to lower long-term interest rates and was introduced as a measure to maintain economic activity during the Corona pandemic.
Higher interest rates usually cause the share prices of listed companies to fall.
The minutes from the Fed indicate that downsizing could start already in September, according to CNBC. The Federal Reserve CEO, Thomas Barkin, is said to have stated that the US market is “close to curtailing”.
Optimistic numbers for the labor market
On Thursday afternoon, figures for the number of new applications for unemployment benefits in the United States fell to 348,000, the lowest level so far in the pandemic. The figure shows that the economy is recovering and the labor market is recovering.
However, the level is much higher than it was before the epidemic broke out in earnest in March 2020. At that time it was around 220,000 per week.
A sharp fall in the Oslo Stock Exchange
Inside, the Oslo Stock Exchange had one of the stock’s worst days so far this year. Most of the heavyweights were defeated and the main index fell 1.8 percent.
The price of oil is down 2.5%, and one barrel of North Sea spot Brent is trading at less than $66 a barrel. The drop comes after it became apparent on Wednesday that US crude stocks fell more-than-expected last week by 3.2 million barrels versus the expected 1.1 million barrels, according to Trading Economics.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We want you to share our cases using a link that leads directly to our pages. All or part of the Content may not be copied or otherwise used with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms look here.
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