UPS rose sharply higher on the stock exchanges in New York on Tuesday. The results of the parcel delivery company, which has had a strong holiday season, were well received by investors. In addition, a substantial increase in the dividend that UPS pays to its shareholders was also appreciated.
The UPS share gained 13.3 percent. The group posted more than expected in the fourth quarter. The company profited from higher prices for its services, amongst other things, which could compensate for higher wage costs. Due to the speedy advance of the omikron variant, more Americans also stayed at home during the holiday season and ordered more online. Competitor FedEx won more than 4 percent.
The mood on Wall Street was somewhat hesitant after the poor stock market month of January. Nevertheless, the American stock markets managed to close the month positively, with the tech indicator Nasdaq gaining more than 3 percent on Monday.
Shortly after opening, the Dow-Jones index was almost flat at 35,138 points. The broad S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 4506 points, and the Nasdaq lost 0.7 percent to 14,141 points.
ExxonMobil gained 2.6 percent. The oil and gas group made more profit than expected last quarter thanks to higher oil prices, but turnover was somewhat disappointing. AT&T lost nearly 5 percent. The telecom group announced that it would sell its stake in WarnerMedia following the media company’s merger with Discovery. In addition, AT&T said it would pay an annual dividend of $1.11 per share upon completion of the deal. That is much less than the current dividend.
Tesla fell 2.4 percent. The electric car manufacturer disables a function of the self-driving system. A software bug allowed vehicles in self-driving mode to slowly roll over at intersections when no other cars or pedestrians were present. The software bug affects more than 53,000 Teslas.