Muted Response at Wall Street: US Indices Continue Losing Streak

At the end of the week, Wall Street was in a composed state, albeit without the necessary energy for positive market momentum. After a period of cooler activities, the all-time highs of the New York stock indices increasingly moved out of investors' sight. The Dow Jones Industrial declined moderately and closed down 0.49 percent at 38,714.77 points. This trend was also reflected in the index's weekly performance. The mood in the broader S&P 500 was also subdued, with a decrease of 0.65 percent to 5,117.09 points. An even clearer picture of hesitation was presented by the Nasdaq 100, where tech-affine stocks responded particularly sensitively to the current events, recording a decline of 1.15 percent to 17,808.25 points. A glance at the economic landscape in the USA presented a mixed picture: The Empire State Index for the industrial sector in New York showed disappointing insights with a significant decline. Consumer confidence, as surveyed by the University of Michigan, also clouded over – contrary to forecasts. A nuanced view was provided by the area of import prices, which rose but remained within expectations. A surprising increase in industrial production in February was offset by a stronger decline in the previous month. Additional pressure on market sentiment was exerted by recently published price data, which dampened hopes for an imminent interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Speculation of monetary easing before the upcoming June meeting was viewed with increasing skepticism by investors, hence there is now particularly high anticipation for signals from the Fed next week. In individual stock analysis, Adobe suffered notably, closing as the Nasdaq 100's laggard with a loss of 13.7 percent, missing expectations significantly and raising concerns regarding its business outlook – with analyst skepticism especially for its 2024 targets. Further declines were seen in Smartsheet and Ulta Beauty, whose business objectives met with little enthusiasm among investors, leading to price losses of 6.9 and 5.2 percent respectively. Semiconductor stocks also felt the pressure, triggered by Chinese efforts to encourage local electric vehicle manufacturers to increasingly source their chips from domestic producers. Technology giants such as NXP Semiconductors and Broadcom reacted with notable share price drops. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing, however, managed to stabilize a bit and, despite the downgrade of its credit outlook by Fitch agency, withstood the general trend with a slight increase. In terms of the foreign exchange and government bond markets, the economic information led to no significant fluctuations. The euro remained steady at a value of 1.0887 dollars. The ten-year yields showed only minor movements.