The standard US stock exchanges have weakened today

In the USA, the standard stock exchanges have weakened today. The technology-heavy Nasdaq stock exchanges, however, managed to make the leap into profitability later in trading. Positive news from the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sectors in particular provided a boost. In general, the topic of inflation continued to play an important role. In addition, market participants weighed the impact of a possible global minimum taxation on large corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Alphabet. The Wall Street Index Dow Jones Industrial finally fell 0.36 percent to 34,630.24 points. Its record high of almost 35,092 points, reached around a month ago, is still within reach. The market-wide S&P 500 lost 0.08 percent to 4226.52 meters. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 turned and closed with an increase of 0.23 percent to 13 802.89 points. Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary and former Federal Reserve President, yesterday encouraged President Joe Biden to push ahead with spending plans to support the economy in the coronavirus crisis, even if it triggered inflation that would last into next year. Yellen also added that a "slightly higher" interest rate environment would be a plus for the US. Higher interest rates, however, can put a strain on equities, because compared to fixed-income securities they are threatened with a loss of attractiveness. Portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from asset manager QC Partners estimates that the stock exchanges could generally live quite well with a slight rise in interest rates. The fear of a sharp rise will probably only return with stronger economic data. As long as the economic data turned out to be at most mediocre, like the labor market report on Friday, don't be afraid of sharply rising interest rates on the stock exchanges. Another topic among investors was the taxation of large digital corporations. According to the will of the leading industrial nations, they should pay at least 15 percent tax worldwide in the future. After years of negotiations, the finance ministers of the G7 countries agreed on a global tax reform. Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple stocks barely responded to this news, however. Alphabet C even climbed to a record high and ultimately closed with a plus of 0.4 percent. The A shares of the Google parent rose by 0.6 percent. Amazon lost 0.3 percent. Apple shares closed almost unchanged after initial losses. The iPhone manufacturer wants to play a bigger role in video chats after the boom in services like Zoom in the Corona crisis. In return, the in-house video service Facetime is getting new functions and can also be used by users of Android smartphones and Windows computers. In the Nasdaq selection index, the shares of Biogen were the front runner with a little more than 38 percent price gain to just under 400 US dollars. At times, it even went up to a record high of $ 468.55 after the FDA approved the Alzheimer's drug aducanumab. This means that Biogen is bringing the first new Alzheimer's therapy onto the market in almost two decades, which is why the drug could become a blockbuster - a drug with enormous sales potential, said market analyst Konstantin Oldenburger of CMC Markets. The analysts from Goldman Sachs also pointed to positive effects on other companies that were researching Alzheimer's drugs and are currently testing them in studies. Eli Lilly jumped 10.2 percent, Alector 7.6 percent and Athira Pharma 4.4 percent. Morphosys went up 3.9 percent on the Nasdaq. Moderna shares jumped 6.6 percent and temporarily hit a record high at just under $ 228. They benefited from the US manufacturer's application to the EU Medicines Agency (EMA) for approval of its corona vaccine for children and adolescents aged twelve and over. So far, only the vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer may be administered to this age group in the EU. Biontech also hit a record high today, eventually gaining 2.1 percent. The papers of the competitor Curevac advanced on the Nasdaq by 7.7 percent. In addition, the shares of the cinema chain AMC Entertainment were again a popular object of speculation. They jumped 14.8 percent in extremely brisk trading. In the last two trading days of the past week, they had fallen sharply after AMC had successfully used the recently multiplied price to fill its own coffers. Gamestop were dragged along in the course of trading and rose by 12.7 percent. The two stocks had already caused a sensation in January when investors organized themselves on the Internet and brought billions in losses to some hedge funds that had bet on a price decline. The euro gained in US trade and cost $ 1.2191 at the end of Wall Street. At times, the common currency managed to jump above the US $ 1.22 mark again. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.2162 (Friday: 1.2117) dollars. The dollar cost 0.8222 (0.8253) euros. On the US bond market, the futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note-Future) fell by 0.06 percent to 132.13 points. The ten-year bond yield was 1.569 percent. Traders spoke of a countermovement after the significant gains on Friday.