US indices sluggish: Wall Street hesitant, semiconductor suppliers with a big plus

At the close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones ended up just below the 34,000 point mark.

US indices sluggish: Wall Street hesitant, semiconductor suppliers with a big plus

At the close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones ended up just below the 34,000 point mark. Cisco shares, on the other hand, made a noticeable plus, while the papers of a semiconductor manufacturer went through the roof.

US stock markets haven't made big jumps. Fresh economic data had little impact on prices. The Dow Jones Industrial closed a tad below the much-touted 34,000 mark, up 0.06 percent at 33,999.04. The market-wide S

Sentiment remains fragile after Wednesday's Federal Reserve minutes signaled that anti-inflation rate hikes should continue despite a slowing economy, the market said. While Fed members have hinted that interest rates may eventually rise more slowly, they have also pointed to the risk that inflationary pressures could become entrenched.

US existing home sales fell more-than-expected in July. The leading indicators fell slightly less than forecast in July. Even before the start of the stock exchange, it was announced that the business climate in the Philadelphia region had brightened up surprisingly in August. The number of initial jobless claims fell in the previous week, while analysts on average had expected a clear increase.

From a company perspective, investors focused on Cisco shares as the Dow leader with a price jump of 5.8 percent. The network equipment supplier performed better than expected in the past quarter thanks to easing problems with the chip supply and gave a positive sales forecast for the current quarter. Analysts of large investment houses then increased the price targets for the Cisco papers.

Wolfspeed's titles soared nearly 32 percent. The manufacturer of semiconductors gave an optimistic outlook for the first business quarter. Kohl's shares, on the other hand, fell 7.7 percent. The retailer with a good 1,100 branches disappointed with a lowered profit forecast. The profit in the coming year should not even be half as high as previously expected. Bed Bath shares

The euro continued its slide from Europe in US trading, falling below $1.01 to its lowest level since mid-July. The common currency was last traded at $1.0090. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.0178 (Wednesday: 1.0164) dollars. The dollar had thus cost 0.9825 (0.9839) euros.

US Treasury bond prices rose slightly. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) recently climbed 0.09 percent to 118.88 points. In contrast, the yield on ten-year government bonds slipped to 2.88 percent.