The US stock markets opened slightly higher on Wednesday after the small losses a day earlier. Tech companies have been in the spotlight for various reasons, but investors generally take it easy.
However, the fear of rising inflation has diminished somewhat. A macroeconomic figure will be released on Friday that is considered important by the Federal Reserve. Until then, the stock market will probably continue to respond somewhat in a wait-and-see way.
The Dow Jones index rose 0.2 percent in the first minutes to 34,378 points. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 4196 points, and tech exchange Nasdaq was up 0.4 percent to 13,706 points.
Amazon (plus 0.2 percent) was in the spotlight after it announced it was acquiring film studio MGM for $ 8.5 billion. The takeover had been in the air for some time. With the deal, Amazon wants to provide its Prime Video streaming service with more content and better compete with Disney, Apple, and Netflix. MGM is the studio behind the James Bond films, among others.
Tesla is in the news over possible sabotage at the company’s new factory in Berlin. Electricity cables were set on fire there, and a radical left group claims to have done so. The group says electric cars are not environmentally friendly and therefore compete against Tesla.
Uber (minus 0.5 percent) is expected to close a deal with the GMB union in the United Kingdom on Wednesday. This gives the drivers of the taxi service more say within the company.
Oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron (plus up to 0.5 percent) have their shareholder meetings. Both companies are being asked to do more to reduce their CO2 emissions.
Ford (plus 4.5 percent) announced it would increase its investment in electric cars by a third. The car manufacturer is now spending $ 30 billion on this and wants four out of ten new cars to be fully electric by 2030. The company recently introduced its first all-electric models.
Google signed a deal with the American hospital chain HCA Healthcare to develop algorithms for healthcare based on the healthcare company’s patient records. The healthcare market, which consumes trillions of dollars, has long been in the picture of tech companies. Google mother Alphabet became worth 0.5 percent more.
