Apple-Filiale in Peking: Verbannung aus den Amtsstuben
Foto: Wu Hao / EPA
Investors on Wall Street refrained from making moves on Thursday due to fears of persistently high interest rates and a resurfacing trade dispute between the US and China. Technology stocks, which are considered more risky, particularly suffered losses, with Apple being particularly affected by the ban on its iPhones in China.
Due to concerns about expanding iPhone bans in China, an increasing number of investors are selling Apple stocks from their portfolios. The shares dropped by 2.9 percent after already losing 3.6 percent on Wednesday. Apple suppliers and companies with significant business in China, such as Broadcom, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments, experienced losses ranging from 1.7 to 7.2 percent. According to insiders, the country is partially prohibiting the use of iPhones at work for government employees and other employees of state-supported employers. Portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from asset manager QC Partners stated that China is thus intensifying the technology and trade war with the US.
The labor market is cooling down at a slow pace.
The issues of the stock market heavyweight weighed on the overall prices at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday: The technology-heavy Nasdaq closed 0.9 percent lower at 13,748 points. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.3 percent to 4,451 points. Only the Dow Jones Industrial Average of blue-chip stocks gained a modest 0.2 percent to 34,500 points.
The ongoing concerns about inflation and interest rates also weighed on the sentiment, as the number of weekly initial jobless claims came in lower than expected at 216,000. According to traders, this reinforces the fears that interest rates could remain high for longer than anticipated. The US Federal Reserve aims to cool down the overheated labor market with its tight monetary policy, without stifling the economy.
The stocks in the solar industry, which are particularly sensitive to interest rates, lost value in the stock market. Companies like First Solar, SunPower, and Canadian Solar saw a decline of 0.9 to 4.7 percent. Enphase Energy and SolarEdge Technologies, which are involved in solar panel production, also experienced losses of up to 2.3 percent. Higher interest rates prolong the estimated time it takes to reach the breakeven point for initial solar installation investments.
The manufacturer of insulin pumps, Insulet, experienced a drop in their stock prices by nearly eight percent, but this is actually related to some positive news. The CEO of the company, James Hollingshead, mentioned at an industry conference that the new generation of diabetes medications (GLP-1) could potentially delay the time until a diabetes patient becomes dependent on insulin. „What we might see is that GLP-1 could influence the progression of insulin therapy,“ stated Hollingshead. Insulet produces and distributes insulin delivery devices under the brand name „Omnipod,“ which helps individuals with insulin-dependent diabetes avoid the need for multiple daily injections. Investors are concerned that the demand for such devices may now decrease.