After the losses of the past few days, the US stock markets are recovering slightly in the run-up to the eagerly awaited central bank meeting in Jackson Hole. Online marketplace Farfetch's stock is climbing. The oil price benefits from lower US inventories.
In the middle of the week, the US stock exchanges recovered somewhat from the losses of the previous trading days. Traders reported bargain buying after the recent pullback. However, the interest rate issue continued to dominate. Accordingly, the annual meeting of central bankers starting Thursday in Jackson Hole cast its shadow and may have prevented players in the US stock market from venturing too far out of cover.
The Dow Jones index closed 0.2 percent up. The S
In view of the prevailing interest rate uncertainty, the participants are hoping for signals from US Federal Reserve Chairman Powell as to whether the next rate hike will again lead to a sharp increase of 75 or possibly only 50 basis points. Then important price data for the Fed will also be published. A large step is currently expected on the interest rate futures market with a probability of around 60 percent.
On Tuesday, weak US purchasing manager data gave speculation a slight boost to 50 basis points and temporarily depressed bond yields. The background was the concern that although interest rate hikes to curb excessive inflation are unavoidable, taking steps that are too large increases the risk of a recession. Durable goods orders in July have now joined the series of weak data. Contrary to expectations, it only stagnated.
Late Tuesday, however, Minneapolis Branch Fed President Neel Kashkari said central bankers did not plan to become more dovish anytime soon, despite disappointing economic data and signs that inflation may have peaked. Some market participants suspect that the interim summer rally in stocks and bonds may have encouraged the Fed in its hawkish approach because it gave it some breathing space.
What's driving the market at the moment is the fear that even if the economy soft-landed successfully, interest rates could be kept at elevated levels for longer after that, until the very last doubts that inflation have been defeated, said market expert Richard Hunter Interactive Investor.
Among individual values, Farfetch was up over 21 percent. Swiss luxury goods group Richemont (up 3.5 percent in Zurich) is selling 47.5 percent of its stake in Italian e-commerce company Yoox-Net-A-Porter (YNAP) to Farfetch, an online marketplace specializing in designer fashion. Richemont will initially receive 53 to 58.5 million of its own shares from Farfetch, which corresponds to about 12 to 13 percent of the issued share capital and at the current price up to almost $530 million. Bernstein analysts spoke of an excellent deal for Farfetch.
Bed Bath
The retailer Nordstrom (minus 20 percent) exceeded expectations with its quarterly figures, but lowered its forecast. Advance Auto Parts lost 9.6 percent. The auto parts retailer also lowered its outlook.
The house builder Toll Brothers (plus 1.3 percent) has lowered its assumptions for the completion of houses for the current year. The company cited labor shortages, supply chain difficulties and higher interest rates.
Turquoise Hill Resources is up nearly 24 percent. Mining giant Rio Tinto has upped its bid for the outstanding stake in the Canadian company after rejecting the previous bid.
The oil price tended to be firmer. Tailwind came from the surprisingly sharp drop in US oil inventories. Dealers also reported that Algeria had signaled approval of a possible OPEC production cut, which a representative of Saudi Arabia had recently brought into play. Uncertainty about the outcome of the nuclear dispute with Iran had a somewhat slowing effect. If the parties to the dispute agree, Iranian oil could soon come onto the market again. A barrel of US WTI oil was up 1.2 percent at settlement. Brent oil gained a similar amount.
