Optimism on Wall Street: US stock markets respond positively to economic data

Positive economic news has buoyed the mood at the US stock exchanges: Investors were encouraged by recent economic data, leading to pre-market gains on Wall Street. With a modest increase of 0.1 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial and a rise of 0.6 percent for the Nasdaq 100, the forecast from the broker IG indicates a friendly start to trading. The market indicators are confidently moving towards a monthly gain in February – with a rise of about two percent for the Dow and nearly five percent for the tech-heavy Nasdaq. US inflation recorded an increase in January that met expectations. Additionally, the number of newly created jobs noticeably exceeded forecasts. Moreover, attention today is directed towards the upcoming Purchasing Managers' Indexes and real estate market statistics. The earnings season also remains at the center of market activity: Salesforce, despite a weak revenue outlook, soothed investors with a higher-than-expected profit and notched a pre-market increase of 0.9 percent. On the downside, shareholders of Snowflake had to grapple with a near 22 percent plummet in share price, triggered by a combination of weak revenue forecast and the departure of the company's CEO. HP Inc also experienced pre-market losses: A disappointing quarterly revenue led to a downturn in stock price of 1.3 percent. AMC Entertainment also saw a decrease – shares of the company fell by almost seven percent after the remuneration of the CEO, Adam Aron, was cut by a quarter as a result of an unsatisfactory fiscal year. Birkenstock, despite a rise in revenue and a reduction in quarterly losses, could not sustainably improve investor sentiment and recorded a 4.6 percent decline in its shares. Nevertheless, since its IPO in New York in October, a share price increase still persists. Best Buy was a beacon of hope with a pre-market gain of 4.4 percent. The electronics retailer chain surprised with strong quarterly results and announced a dividend increase, which caused investor euphoria.