Despite better-than-expected business results from American banks, Wall Street’s stock indices remained almost unchanged on Wednesday, as investors were concerned about the reduction in global economic growth forecasts.
The Dow Jones index fell by 23 points, or 0.17 percent, to 13,511 points, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.02 percent, to 1,472 points, and the Nasdaq index increased by 0.22 percent, to 3,117 points.
Goldman Sachs reported yesterday that its profit in the last quarter of last year was nearly three times higher than a year earlier, causing the bank’s stock price to jump more than 4 percent, while JPMorgan’s stock rose by 1 percent, as the earnings of this banking giant increased by 53 percent in the fourth quarter.
The significantly better results from these banks than expected boosted the entire financial sector. – “Quite good results from both banks strongly supported the entire sector, leading to increased expectations regarding the results of other banks. I believe this could support the entire market in the coming days,” says Michael James, a trader at Wedbush Morgan.
However, investors are worried about the prospects of the global economy, after the World Bank lowered its growth forecasts for this year, primarily due to the weakness of the most developed economies. In its latest report, the World Bank estimates that last year the global gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.3 percent, while this year a growth of 2.4 percent is expected. This is significantly lower than the 3 percent that the Bank estimated in its report from June of last year.
