08.11.2024
US Federal Reserve lowers key interest rate by 25 basis points
+ Goldman raises Biontech to 'Buy' - target up to 137 dollars + Bechtle higher - remains optimistic for the final quarter + Redcare at three-year high
The US Federal Reserve has lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points. This decision had been firmly expected on the markets. The decision was taken unanimously by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The decision, which was taken in the week of Donald Trump's re-election as US president, followed an initial cut of 50 basis points in September and will bring the key interest rate to a range of 4.50 to 4.75 percent. US Federal Reserve officials have said that these rate cuts are justified because they are more confident that inflation will return to the central bank's target and because they believe that interest rates are still high enough to dampen economic activity even after the recent cuts. "The Council judges that the risks to achieving the employment and inflation objectives are roughly balanced," the Fed's statement said. Trump's election victory has the potential to reshape the economic outlook as the Republicans' likely majority in Congress allows for a sweeping change of course on taxes, spending, immigration and trade. The changing outlook has in turn raised questions on Wall Street as to whether the Fed will change its previous expectation that interest rates could be steadily lowered over the next year or two.
The US investment bank Goldman Sachs has Biontech $BNTX (+6,37 %) from "Neutral" to "Buy" and raised its price target from 90 to 137 US dollars. Analyst Chris Shibutani now includes BNT327 - an antibody that the Mainz-based company is testing against various solid tumors - in his buy recommendation published on Friday. The investment story is moving further away from the difficult-to-assess Covid vaccine market.
With Bechtle $BC8 (-0,68 %) a very weak 2024 share was in demand in pre-market trading on Friday. Following the IT service provider's final quarterly figures, the shares rose by 2.7 percent in Tradegate trading compared to the Xetra closing price. An attempt to recover from the low since 2020 thus continues. So far this year, the share has lost around 28% despite the recent stabilization and a gain of 3.3% the day before. Since the record high in 2021, the share price has even more than halved. According to a trader, the business environment for Bechtle in the third quarter was characterized by challenges. The results showed a mixed picture with weak demand in the core markets of Germany and France, but solid organic growth in other international markets, and another trader emphasized that Bechtle is optimistic about the future and continues to expect an improvement in the fourth quarter. However, the first mentioned trader sees risks in the fact that public IT spending in Germany could suffer for the time being from the end of the traffic light coalition.
The good performance of the shares of Redcare Pharmacy $RDC (-3,11 %) continued on Friday with a high since December 2021. The shares were already the biggest MDax gainer in 2023 and are among the better performers in the mid-cap index this year. On Friday, they rose by up to three percent to EUR 157.60 in early Xetra trading. So far this year, they have repeatedly struggled in the EUR 153 to 154 range.
Friday: Stock market dates, economic data, quarterly figures
ex-dividend of individual stocks
Apple USD 0.25
Pfizer USD 0.42
ConocoPhillips USD 0.78
Wells Fargo USD 0.4
Quarterly figures / company dates USA / Asia
07:00 Sony quarterly figures
Untimed: Baxter International quarterly figures
Quarterly figures / Company dates Europe
07:00 LEG Immobilien | Richemont Quarterly figures
07:30 Bechtle | Deutsche Wohnen Quarterly figures
08:00 Banca Monte dei Paschi | International Consolidated Airlines Quarterly figures
10:00 Freenet earnings call and strategy update until 2028
10:30 Bechtle analyst and press conference
14:00 Pernod Ricard AGM
Economic data
- 06:00 JP: Leading indicators 9/24 (preliminary)
- 08:00 DE: Domestic tourism | Truck toll mileage index October
- 09:00 DE: Bundestag, Plenum, Berlin
- 11:30 DE: Government Pk, Berlin
- 16:00 US: Consumer Sentiment Index Uni Michigan (1st survey) November FORECAST: 71.0 previous: 70.5
