The stock exchanges in New York on Tuesday after the opening bell did not come far from their closing positions of the day before. Investors received quarterly reports from several large companies.
At the same time, attention is focused on the new offensive that Russia has launched on eastern Ukraine and signs of faster rate hikes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent to 34,538 points. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 4401 points, and the Nasdaq lost 0.1 percent to 13,323 points.
Interest rate fears have already been troubling the European stock markets. The boss of the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis has also said that the US central bank will have to raise interest rates further quickly to curb high inflation. He did not even rule out the need for a relatively large interest rate step at once.
Higher interest rates are generally unfavourable for equities, as they become less attractive relative to bonds that are considered safer. As a result, high-priced technology stocks often fall on signals of rising interest rates.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered growth expectations for economies worldwide and now projects much higher inflation in the US and the eurozone. As a result, the US economy has a better chance of a soft landing than the European one, said IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas.
Pharmacist Johnson & Johnson (plus 3 percent), among others, opened the books. The group cancelled its previous forecasts for turnover from the corona vaccine developed by its subsidiary Janssen, partly due to an “oversupply” in the global market for vaccines against the lung virus. Instead, turnover increased, but profit decreased.
Shares of Lockheed Martin rose 0.5 percent. The weapons and combat aircraft manufacturer experienced supply problems in the first three months. As a result, profits fell. The company did not say anything about a possible increased demand for weapons due to the war in Ukraine.
Staffing company Manpower posted a much higher profit than a year earlier. Randstad’s competitor also posted 4 percent higher sales, helped partly by the tight labour market in many parts of the world. As a result, the share gained 2.9 percent.
A barrel of US oil costs 3.7 percent less at $104.25 a barrel. Brent oil fell 3.4 percent in price to $109.29 a barrel. The euro was worth $1.0796, compared to $1.0789 a day earlier.