“Wall Street” defies expectations and soars in the opening
The Japanese “Nikkei” index ended trading yesterday, Friday, lower, affected by the acceleration of the decline in shares related to chips, which will monitor the impact of their counterparts in the United States.
European stocks saw stability in early trading on Friday; A slide in tech stocks on pessimistic expectations from software giant SAP sapped gains for energy companies tracking the impact of higher oil prices.
“Wall Street” stock market’s major indices opened higher, leading the “Dow Jones” index to gain for the tenth consecutive day, while major companies and technology stocks started to recover after suffering sharp losses in the previous session.
Destroy the gains
Semiconductor industry giants Tokyo Electron and Advantest fell 5.6 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, erasing about 200 points from the index.
The Nikkei fell 186 points, or 0.57 percent, to 32,304.25.
In contrast, the broader TOPICS index, which does not focus heavily on technology stocks, rose 0.06 percent.
Chip components maker Screen Holdings and chipmaker Renesas Electronics fell 4.9 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 3.6 percent overnight, its worst daily performance this year.
Big losses by chip stocks on Friday erased gains in automobile sector stocks, which surged 10.4 percent on the back of positive data.
Energy stocks fared better, and its sub-index rose 1.4 percent, supported by higher crude oil prices.
Energy rises
The European Stoxx 600 index settled at 463.72 points and is on track to post a slight gain of 0.6 percent for the week.
Technology stocks in Europe fell 1.6 percent. And the sector has already suffered its biggest losses in key sectors for the week. As for energy companies, they rose 0.7 percent, supported by higher oil prices as investors weighed the possibility of China announcing more stimulus measures.
Shares in Swedish steelmaker SSAB fell 13.4 percent to underperform the Stoxx 600 index after a bigger-than-expected decline in its quarterly profit, while Swiss drugmaker Lonza fell 7 percent after cutting its full-year forecast.
The Dow Jones rose 49.14 points
The U.S. Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.14 points, or 0.14 percent, to 35,274.32.
The S&P 500 index added 15.29 points, or 0.34 percent, to 4,550.16, while the Nasdaq Composite added 84.87 points, or 0.60 percent, to 14,148.18.
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