The stock exchanges in New York were on a profit halfway through the session on Wednesday. Sentiment was helped by optimism about a trade deal between the United States and China. Chip companies were in the spotlight after better than expected figures from memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology.
The Dow-Jones index was 0.2 percent higher at 26.596 points around 19.30 (Dutch time). The broad S&P 500 climbed a fraction to 2918 points and the Nasdaq technology fair advanced 0.4 percent to 7916 points.
The American finance minister Steven Mnuchin is “hopeful” that a trade deal can be concluded. According to the minister, the deal is now around 90 percent complete. President Donald Trump and his Chinese colleague Xi Jinping will meet at the G20 summit in Japan this week.
Micron won 13 percent. The company recorded lower profits and sales, but investors mainly responded to the comment about “early signs of recovery” in the market. In the wake of Micron, industry peers Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), NXP Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and Qualcomm won 2.5 to 5.6 percent.
Broadcom was also in the spotlight. The European Commission is investigating the abuse of power by the chip maker. Broadcom may have prohibited its customers from doing business with competitors due to clauses in contracts. The share won 1.7 percent.
Boeing rose 2.3 percent. The first flights with the offending Boeing 737 MAX may take place towards the end of the summer. In addition, the company conducts negotiations with companies about compensation for damage suffered due to the obligation to keep the aircraft on the ground.
General Mills food company, known from brands such as Cheerios, Bugles and Häagen-Dazs, dropped 4.6 percent after figures. Technology group BlackBerry also opened the books and lost almost 10 percent. Results from package delivery agent FedEx (plus 2.2 percent) were well received.
The euro was worth $ 1.1378 against $ 1.1385 at the end in Europe. The price of a barrel of American oil rose 2.7 percent to $ 59.36. Brent oil cost 2.2 percent more at $ 66.50 a barrel.
Lesley Woutersen, one of the co-founders of the EconomicInform gives away all of his free time to the project. He is interested in stock exchange and digital assets. Lesley can be reached by lesley.woutersen@economicinform.com.
