The spontaneous riots in Washington did not interrupt the long rally in the US stock markets, so as a result, major indices reached record levels.
On Wednesday, supporters of the current US President, Donald Trump, attacked the Senate building in order to prevent the official recognition of Joe Biden's victory in the November presidential election. As a result of the riots, four people died and the Capitol was damaged. And amid the spontaneous chaos, Senate Democratic leaders called for Donald Trump's impeachment or his removal from office under the constitutional amendment on the incapacity of the president.
Now, many market participants hope that representatives of the Democratic Party, having gained control of the White House and Congress, will significantly increase government spending to support the US economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some Democrats have already said that after Biden's inauguration, special attention will be paid to the issue of increasing direct payments to households, in particular, raising it to up to $ 2,000 per person.
Experts believe that such a measure could provoke acceleration of inflation in the United States. Most often, these actions lead to higher stock prices of financial companies, discretionary consumer goods manufacturers and technology enterprises.
But in the meantime, analysts are making long-term forecasts about the global state of the US economy.
This is because yesterday, the S&P 500 gained 1.6% and rose to 3803.79 points, while the Nasdaq Composite increased by 2.6% and reached 13067.48 points. Both indices achieved new record highs this 2021. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.7% (to 31,041.13 points) and posted its second closing record in the year.
As for other indices, the Russell 2000, which tracks small-cap companies, rose 2.0% and also posted a record high.
The technology sector is also among the leaders of growth in the stock market, with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices gaining more than 5%.
Banks also posted positive dynamics for the most part. For instance, JPMorgan reported an impressive 3.3% gain.
Tesla, an American electric car manufacturer, also gained 7.9%, thereby raising its market capitalization to $ 773 billion.
DXC Technology also rose 9.3%, after Reuters reported that French corporation Atos had made a takeover bid. The issue price is more than $ 10 billion.
Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance also gained 5.2%, after the company reported sharp growth in sales for the last quarter.
In turn, many investors tried to sell defensive assets, as they were less likely to expect instability or economic uncertainty in the short term. As a result, the shares of manufacturers of consumer goods and utility companies lost significant values on Thursday.
The market of US government bonds also reported a sale, therefore, the yield for 10-year Treasury bonds jumped from 1.041% to 1.070%, after crossing 1% for the first time since March 2020.
Experts believe that on Friday, market participants will focus on the December report of the US Department of Labor on the number of jobs outside of agriculture.
As for the stock indices in Asia-Pacific, there were also steady growth and new records on Thursday.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped 0.5%, led by construction and materials companies.
South Korea's Kospi Composite rose 2.1%, posting another record.
China's Shanghai Composite also gained 0.7% and reached its highest level in more than five years.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Hang Seng index declined by 0.5%, as the shares of three main Chinese telecommunications companies dropped significantly after the New York Stock Exchange once again changed its position on the issue of resuming delisting of their ADRs. In particular, shares of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom fell from 7% to 11%.
Shares of Alibaba also sank by 3.9%, the same with Tencent who recorded a drop of 4.7%, after the Wall Street Journal said the US authorities could extend the ban to the stocks of these two corporations.
