The willingness to buy declined noticeably on Friday

After the strong price gains of the previous two days, investors' willingness to buy declined noticeably on Friday. The Dow Jones index closed 0.1 percent higher. The S&P 500 also gained 0.1 percent. The Nasdaq Composite ended trading little changed. For 1,491 (Thursday: 2,139) course winners there were 1,783 (1,133) losers. 129 (158) titles closed unchanged. Market participants cited the steady rise in bond yields over the past few days as one of the reasons for the reluctance of investors. The trigger was the announcement by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday that it is expected to begin repaying its bond purchases in November. On Friday, the ten-year yield rose above 1.45 percent for the first time since the beginning of July. The uncertainty about the future of the highly indebted Chinese real estate giant Evergrande, which had recently abated somewhat, also revived after the company apparently allowed a deadline for a due interest payment to US dollar bondholders to elapse on Thursday. However, many observers are convinced that a collapse of the group outside of China would only cause limited damage. Investors also worried about the domestic dispute over raising the debt ceiling in the US. If there is no agreement here, the federal authorities are threatened with shutdown after the end of the budget year next Thursday. The spokeswoman for the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, alleviated the fears by promising to prevent the dreaded "shutdown". Surprisingly strong data on the sales of new buildings in August do not set any accents in this mixed situation.