It started off quickly on US stock exchanges when trading opened on Wednesday afternoon. A few hours later, the air slowly leaked out of the balloon, but then the US central bank breathed some life into Wall Street with its interest rate report published on Wednesday. The three main indicators ended as follows:
- The benchmark S&P 500 stock index rose 0.43%.
- The Nasdaq Composite technology index rose 0.71 percent.
- Industrial heavyweight Dow Jones rose 0.19 percent.
This is the fourth consecutive day of gains in the US stock market.
Fall in the stock market debut
German sandal maker Birkenstock went public on Wednesday. The company has been making sandals, slippers and shoes for 249 years, and was priced at $8.64 billion in a pre-market IPO.
This equates to $46 per share. It’s been a lukewarm start for Birkenstock. The stock closed at $40.2, representing a decline of more than 12 percent from the listing price.
Before the stock market opened, news spread that the American oil giant ExxonMobil had purchased Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5 billion. This corresponds to a staggering NOK 645 billion, and is by far the largest acquisition in the world this year.
In doing so, Exxon strengthens its position as the largest player in the massive Permian shale basin in the United States of America. According to analyst Theodor Sven Nielsen, the deal could help make the oil market less volatile, DN wrote earlier on Wednesday.
Exxon shares fell 3.6 percent.
Interest rates are falling a little
Just before the stock market opened, new US Producer Price Index numbers were released. Prices rose 0.5 percent in September, higher than expectations of 0.3 percent. It doesn’t seem to bother market participants too much. Although September’s numbers were higher than expected, they were still lower than the previous month when they rose 0.7%.
Otherwise, the interest rate on ten-year US government bonds, often referred to as the world’s most important interest rate, is somewhat lower than it was on Tuesday. On Wednesday evening, it was 4.56 percent, down from a recent peak of about 4.9 percent earlier in October.
The VIX, also called the fear index, is falling slightly.(conditions)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using links that lead directly to our pages. No copying or other use of all or part of the Content may be permitted except with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms see here.
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