The stock exchanges in New York opened lower on Thursday. After strongly declining retail sales, the earlier positive sentiment on Wall Street reversed. Traders had a trade heap around the American-Chinese trade dispute. President Donald Trump would be willing to postpone the deadline for a trade agreement for 60 days.
The leading Dow-Jones index was 0.7 percent lower at 25,368 points after a few minutes. The broad S & P 500 dropped 0.6 percent to 2737 points and the Nasdaq tech exchange lost 0.4 percent to 7395 points.
American retail sales fell by 1.2 percent in December compared to a month earlier. The unexpected downturn was the biggest since 2009. In addition, investors were given a series of corporate figures for choosing Cisco and Coca-Cola, among others.
Coca-Cola plummeted more than 6 percent at the show because the figures were worse than average analysts had expected. The company managed to achieve four times more profit in the past year compared to a year earlier. Coca-Cola spent its drinks at higher prices and benefited from the popularity of sugar-free soft drinks.
The American manufacturer of network equipment Cisco Systems, on the other hand, won more than 4 percent. The company recorded solid sales growth and announced a higher dividend and share repurchase program.
Oliver I. Kjeldsen has a corporate finance and extensive expertise in company audit. He grants us amazing insights on taxation, international affairs and friendly advice on nearly any topic of interest. His email is oliver.kjeldsen@economicinform.com
