Mixed quarterly opening on Wall Street

The second trading quarter seemed for a long time to end with a broad decline in New York, before the Nasdaq index recovered completely on the spur of the moment. Trump Media went on a big bang after the adventurous listing before Easter.

This is what it looked like on the benchmark indices on Wall Street at the close at 10:00 p.m. Norwegian time:

• The collective index S&P 500 fell fell 0.20 percent
• The technology index Nasdaq rose 0.11 percent
• The Dow Jones fell 0.61 percent

On the last trading day before Easter, the broad S&P 500 index rounded off the first quarter as the best quarter since 2019.

All three of the most important indices on Wall Street have put a strong quarter behind them, driven by, among other things, AI shares and optimism about interest rate cuts from the US central bank.

They are all near record highs, and the Dow Jones is close to breaking above 40,000 points for the first time. In early trading, however, the index fell somewhat, and was never able to recover.

A barrel of North Sea oil (Brent spot) trades at closing for USD 87.54 a barrel. There is an increase of 0.81 percent since midnight.

Positive ISM figures for the first time in 17 months

Fresh ISM figures for industry in the USA presented on Monday show that the index will enter above 50, more precisely 50.3.

That the index turns up has not happened since October 2022. Since then, there has been a fall for 16 straight months, according to American CNBC.

The survey maps the expectations of companies in various parts of the industrial sector throughout the United States. The numbers have a clear impact on the stock market, writes Bloomberg, who also points out the fact that the European markets are closed. Therefore, the results on Wall Street are affected to a greater extent than usual.

The dollar has climbed in the wake of the recent figures, which has weakened the krone in parallel.

– The Fed’s first interest rate cut may come in the second half of the year, after all. The probability of a cut in June is close to being krone or coin, 50/50, says Jose Torres Interactive Brokers to the news agency.

Strong Trump fall

After an adventurous opening as a publicly traded company before Easter, the ex-president’s Trump Media has fallen sharply on Wall Street on Monday.

The fall comes as a result of recent documents sent to the US Financial Supervisory Authority (SEC), which show an after-tax loss of 58 million dollars in 2023. This is what CNBC writes on Monday afternoon Norwegian time.

The turnover last year was a modest 4.1 million dollars, the figures show. The company indicates that they themselves expect to operate at a loss in the foreseeable future.

By the time the clock strikes 10 p.m., the share ended down 21.5 percent.

Donald Trump owns 57 percent of the company. His shares are now worth $3.76 billion, according to Bloomberg. This means that his personal fortune has fallen by over one billion dollars during the trading day.

According to the same news agency, the fortune is now worth 6.4 billion dollars. Here you can read more about Trump’s fortune, and how much he has actually is worth.

Record prices send companies up

A record high gold price helped send several gold companies up on Monday. An ounce of gold now costs $2.235.

Barrick Gold rose 1.2 percent, while gold investor Royal Gold rose 0.5 percent.

– These are good times for gold, says Joseph Cavatoni, strategist at the World Gold Council, to US CNBC.

He believes the drivers are the optimism in the market and the belief that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates.

Inflation rose somewhat

Price inflation in the US rose as expected by 2.5 per cent in February, measured through PCE, which is the inflation figure the US central bank (Fed) believes is most important.

Senior economist Sara Midgaard at Handelsbanken told E24 after the release of the figures that it gives the Fed room to cut the key interest rate in the summer.

– The market believes that it is predominantly likely that there will be an interest rate cut as early as June, she said.

Core inflation came in unchanged at 2.8 per cent, exactly as expected beforehand.

The market now has a 60 percent chance of a rate cut in June, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.