On the world’s largest stock exchanges, stock prices rose strongly in the first week of the new year, so many stock indexes, including the American S&P 500 and the European STOXX 600, reached new record levels.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index gained 2.3 percent last week, to 49,504 points, while the S&P 500 rose 1.6 percent, to 6,966 points, and the Nasdaq index rose 1.9 percent, to 23,671 points.
The records of the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 index are mostly attributed to the growth of stock prices in the mining, energy, industrial and other sectors that have lagged behind the technology sector in previous years.
The prices of arms manufacturers’ shares also rose sharply, after US President Donald Trump declared that the US military budget for 2027 should amount to 1,500 billion dollars, while this year it amounts to about 900 billion dollars.
Stock prices in the technology sector also rose, but fluctuated considerably, falling sharply one day and rising sharply the next.
In recent months, share prices in the technology sector have fluctuated significantly as investors fear that the sector is overvalued after years of growth fueled by the development of artificial intelligence.
While some analysts believe that this year the technology sector will lead the markets in terms of growth, others warn of possible instability due to investors’ concerns about huge investments and debt levels.
– The artificial intelligence sector is still attractive, but there will be winners and losers. It became a “show me” sector. Show me how you will monetize your investments and what will be the return on your investment in development – said Art Hogan, strategist at B. Riley Wealth.
There was not much news in the first week of the new year, with investors paying most attention to the employment report.
In the US, the number of employees increased by 50 thousand in December, less than in the previous month and less than expected. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent, which shows that the situation on the labor market is not so bad.
Therefore, these data did not significantly affect the expectations regarding the interest rates of the US central bank.
And on the European stock exchanges, share prices rose last week. The London FTSE index strengthened by 1.7 percent, to 10,124 points, while the Frankfurt DAX jumped 2.9 percent, to 25,261 points, and the Paris CAC 2.0 percent, to 8,362 points.
At the same time, many European stock indexes reached record levels, among them the STOXX 600 index of leading European shares.
Thanks to the growth of the world’s largest stock markets, the MSCI index of all world stock markets reached a record level of 1,034 points last week.
