The upward effort on the Wall ‘deflated’ in the final straight

The slight upward effort of Wall Street “deflated” in the last hour of the session, with the key indicators – in the midst of the volatility reserved by the low festive trading volume – “erasing” all their profits and returning to the “red”, just a day after the new Dow Jones and S&P 500 new records were set on Wednesday.

The initial buying mood of investors today was partly fueled by the belief that the outbreak of the pandemic due to the Omicron superconducting variant will not cause permanent damage to the economy, as well as the increase in the Chicago PMI that showed that the economy of the greater Chicago area , which is considered a good barometer for US manufacturing and the wider US economy, remains robust.

Partly positive were the data released for the labor market, which showed that the new applications for unemployment benefits in the US last week remained close to the lowest level of 52 years. However, as economists point out, the low number of new applications for unemployment benefits also reflects to some extent the reluctance of companies to lay off workers as they find it difficult to fill vacancies amid labor shortages, which is problematic.

The effort of investors, however, to lead the market even higher did not last until the end. Despite the encouraging data of recent weeks on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which based on preliminary data suggest that this strain causes milder symptoms than previous strains, there are concerns that the effects of successive record-breaking cases have not yet sectors of the economy.

Indicators – statistics

Thus, on the board, the Dow Jones industrial average, although it started rising with another bow for another record, failed to raise defenses in the pressures that manifested in the last hour of the session. Therefore, after recording an intra-conference high of 36,679.44 points, it “erased” all its gains and finally closed 90 points or 0.25% lower, at 36,398.08 points.

A similar course was recorded by the broader S&P 500, which after climbing to a new intra-day high fell 0.27% lower than yesterday’s record, to 4,780.15 points.

The technology Nasdaq closed with losses of 0.16% at 15,741.60 points, although intra-conference showed a better picture than the other two key indicators, they remain almost 2% lower than the historical high that “wrote” last month.

It is noted that yesterday the blue chips index gained 0.3% and made the 6X6 achieving its 45th record at the end of the year, while the S&P 500 with an increase of 0.14% set its 70th record for this year. The Nasdaq failed to follow through, recording losses of 0.1%.

So far this year, the S&P 500 is ahead with gains of 27%, the Nasdaq is up 22%, while the Dow Jones is up almost 10%. The Russell 2000 small capitalization index also recorded gains of almost 14%.

Of the 30 Dow Jones shares, just 7 closed higher on Thursday, with Walt Disney (0.68%), Johnson & Johnson (0.44%) and IBM (0.42%) recording the highest gains. . On the other hand, the highest losses were recorded by the titles of Procter & Gamble (-0.86%), Microsoft (-0.77%) and Nike (-0.76%).

In the individual shares, a dip of 7.1% was recorded by the title of Biogen – being the main weight of the S&P 500 – after the denial of the Samsung Group that it is in talks for the purchase of the pharmaceutical company.