Money watchers have made it clear that they will fight persistently high inflation with determination. This has stifled interest rate hopes among investors in recent weeks and raised concerns about a deep recession.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve increased the policy rate by 0.5 percentage points as part of the fight against inflation. On Thursday, the Swiss National Bank (SNB), the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) watched interest rates of the same magnitude. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan and ECB Chairman Christine Lagarde emphasized that they will tighten the reins further on interest rates if necessary.
Stockbrokers didn’t like it at all because they hoped that central banks could take their feet off the accelerator in the rate hike cycle. The leading Swiss index SMI fell 2.5 percent to 10,880 points on Thursday, with Frankfurt’s DAX down 3.3 percent and London’s FTSE 100 down almost one percent. At the same time, the Dow Jones Index on Wall Street fell 2.5 percent.
Especially economically sensitive papers were pulled down by interest rate concerns. Hearing aid company Sonova titles fell 5.4 percent, dental prosthetics specialist Straumann titles fell 5.3 percent, and construction companies titles such as Sika or Holcim fell 4.0 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.
However, even the otherwise stable heavyweights failed to stabilize the market as a whole. Roche and Novartis’s pharmaceutical stocks fell 1.7 percent and 1.8 percent, while Nestlé lost 3.0 percent. Such a sharp decline in the food giant from Vevey is rare.
(SDA)