Broad recovery in the US: New figures strengthen belief in interest rate cuts

There was a broad rise on the stock market in the USA on Ascension Day, after a mixed development the day before.

This is how it went with the three leading indices on Wall Street:

• The S&P 500 index rose 0.51 percent to 5,214.08.
• The technology index Nasdaq rose 0.27 percent to 16,346.26.
• Industry-heavy Dow Jones ended up 0.85 percent at 39,387.76, rising for the seventh day in a row.
• The fear index was down 2.2 percent to 12.71.

The ten-year US government yield stood at 4.455 per cent at 22:00 Norwegian time, down 0.028. UBS now predicts that this will drop to 3.85 percent by the end of the year, according to MarketWatch.

An auction of 30-year government bonds for $25 billion with good demand contributed to the decline in interest rates, according to Bloomberg. So did new figures from the US labor market.

Food for interest rate cut hopes

WILL IT BE CUT? The hope of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and central bank governor Jerome Powell increases with the fresh key figures on Thursday. Photo: Bloomberg

Thursday’s jobless claims figures showed 231,000 first-time jobless claimants last week, which was more than 20,000 more than expected – and the highest figure since August last year. This strengthens faith in interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

Last week, the “key figures of the month” showed unexpectedly low non-farm payrolls growth in the US. “This is an interest rate-down number,” commented Chief Economist Harald Magnus Andreassen at SpareBank 1 Markets after the low job figures.

Incidentally, on Thursday the British central bank decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent. However, two out of nine in the monetary policy committee voted to cut, against one at the previous meeting and an expectation of one now as well. The other seven voted for an unchanged policy rate.

In the wake of the interest rate ruling, the British FTSE 100 rose to a new top listing. The index ended up 0.33 percent at 8,381.35, after having been up to 8,396.25.

Oslo Børs was among several other stock markets that were closed on Thursday.

Fantastic seven

Meta Platforms rose for the seventh day in a row, with an increase of 0.6 percent. Microsoft rose 0.4 percent, and Amazon rose 0.8 percent. Apple ended up 1.0 percent. Google company Alphabet rose 0.25 percent, while Nvidia fell 1.8 percent. Tesla fell 1.6 percent.

Home Depot and Caterpillar contributed to the Dow Jones rise with their price increases of 2.5 and 2.1 percent, according to CNBC.

Quarterly figures

Warner Bros Discovery has, according to CNBC, presented a weaker top and bottom line than expected and was down for a long time, but the share turned to rise and ended up 3.1 percent.

The cinema chain AMC Entertainment has reported a decline in revenue and guests, falling 4.4 per cent. Semiconductor company Arm fell 2.3 percent after presenting disappointing guidance. Airbnb has also presented disappointing guidance, falling 6.9 percent – although the results for the first quarter were better than expected.