The stock exchanges in New York are expected to open on Thursday with small results. As in Europe, investors’ attention on Wall Street goes to the interest rate decision of the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB kept interest rates unchanged as expected. In addition, we are looking forward to the important American job report on Friday.
In addition, developments in the American-Chinese trade talks are being monitored. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that progress is being made in trade negotiations between the two economic superpowers. There will be a “good deal” or no deal, “Trump said.
The ECB indicated that interest rates will remain unchanged until the end of this year. Earlier, the ECB stated that interest rates would not rise until at least after the summer. President Mario Draghi explains the interest rate decision. In addition, the central bank lowered its forecasts for economic growth and inflation in the euro zone.
In macroeconomic terms, it was reported that benefit claims in the US dropped by 3000 to 223,000 last week. Economists on average counted 225,000 benefit requests. Furthermore, labor productivity in the US grew by 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter.
The American supermarket chain Kroger’s came with disappointing results and expectations for this year and is the front door firmly in the red.
The stock exchanges in New York ended Wednesday with price losses, partly due to weaker expectations for the growth of the world economy by the OECD. The leading Dow-Jones index closed 0.5 percent lower at 25,673.46 points. The broad S & P 500 went down 0.7 percent to 2771.45 points and the Nasdaq tech fair delivered 0.9 percent to 7505.92 points.
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.
