Wall: Rally of 650 points for Dow – Gains of 3.6% for Nasdaq, 2.6% for S&P 500

Wall Street broke the four-day downtrend that began on Friday in the most emphatic way, with the indicators recovering strongly on Wednesday amid hopes for de-escalation of the war in Ukraine and the “regression” of commodity prices.

Taking the baton from other international stock markets, Wall Street has moved sharply higher since the beginning of today’s session, with investors focusing on hopes for a possible diplomatic solution in Ukraine.

Hopes sparked yesterday by the Moscow-Kiev agreement on a temporary ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from the Ukrainian territories that have been mercilessly hit by Russian troops, and on the other hand the forthcoming meeting of Russian Foreign Ministers tomorrow. in Turkey.

The possibility of a diplomatic solution was further reinforced today by statements from both Russia and Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declaring that he no longer looked forward to NATO membership, which was one of Russia’s main “excuses” for The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Russia would prefer to secure a neutral status in Ukraine through talks, adding that Moscow’s goals did not include overthrowing the Kiev government.

The shift of investors to equity values ​​was further enhanced by the de-escalation of price increases in energy and commodity prices.

U.S. WTI crude plunged more than 12 percent today and Brent crude fell more than 13 percent, with both contracts falling from a nearly 14-year high yesterday to a 30-year high and a 30 percent drop. April contract of European gas at the Amsterdam junction (TTF) after a day of extreme volatility, with its price at 149.5 euros per megawatt hour.

Indicators – statistics

Thus, on Wednesday, the key indicators of Wall Street performed in a recovery rally, which helped the S&P 500 to mark its best day since June 2020 and erase half of the losses of 5% recorded in the last four meetings.

In particular, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 653 points or 2% and ended the session at 33,286.25 points, while intra-conference it added up to 767 points.

The S&P 500 gained 2.57% and closed at 4,277.88 points, while a strong increase of 3.59% was recorded by the technology Nasdaq, which added 460 points and closed at 13,255.55 points.

Of the 30 shares that make up the blue chips index, only four closed in the “red” and namely Chevron with -2.5%, Verizon Communications with -0.32%, McDonald’s with -0.14% and Caterpillar with -0.10%, while all the others closed with gains from 0.16% up to 5.77%. Salesforce led the way with an increase of 5.77%, followed by American Express with 5.37% and Nike with 4.74%.

Macro

Job vacancies in the US fell slightly in January, but remained close to the all-time high of December, with millions still leaving the job market each month, a phenomenon known as the “Big Resignation.”

In particular, the number of job vacancies fell from the revised number of 11.5 million in December to 11.3 million in January, according to data released on Wednesday by the US Department of Labor.

During the same period, however, about 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs. It is noted that the resignations peaked last November, when they reached 4.5 million, while before the coronavirus pandemic they averaged below 3 million each month.

According to MarketWatch, the demand for labor remains stronger than ever as the US recovers from the pandemic. But while the U.S. economy has added an average of 614,000 new jobs over the past five months, businesses are still struggling to attract new employees and retain existing ones.

Source: Capital

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