The stock exchanges in New York went out of business on Thursday. In particular, supermarket companies were under pressure mainly due to Amazon’s price reductions in Whole Foods’s stores. Investors continued quietly in anticipation of potential fireworks from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where a meeting for central bankers began on Thursday.
The leading Dow Jones index closed with a min of 0.1 percent at 21,783.40 points. The broad S & P 500 ended with a loss of 0.2 percent at 2438.97 points. Nasdaq lost 0.1 percent to 6271.33 points.
With the acquisition of the Whole Foods supermarket chain by Amazon, a further price strike appears in the US supermarket industry next. The web shop giant wants to reduce the prices of popular products structurally as of Monday, when the acquisition is completed.
Amazon received green light on Wednesday for the acquisition. The tech company pays nearly $ 14 billion for Whole Foods. It buys the chain to quickly take steps in the physical shopping area. Whole Foods focuses on organic and healthy foods and has over 460 branches in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.
Whole Foods never managed to strike prices, among other things, Amazon’s technology should provide a boost. Among other things, logistics thinks Amazon can take steps. Also, Amazon wants to sell Whole Foods products through its website.
Furthermore, Amazon will place special safes in some Whole Foods branches. There, customers can deliver the items they ordered through Amazon’s website. Products that need to be exchanged can also be placed in those lockers.
Experts speak of fast and above all fast steps from Amazon. That announcement caused sharp fall in prices at other supermarket chains in the US. Amazon itself lost 0.6 percent.
Kroger eventually lost more than 8 percent. Sprout Farmers did not do much better with a loss of 7 percent. Also, Target (min. 4 percent), which wants to use full-scale groceries, saw some of its trading value evaporate. Wal-Mart, whose bags are reportedly deep enough to catch price reductions, lost 2 percent.
Jewelery chain Tiffany closed 1.3 percent lower after figures. Due to a growing demand for its products in Asia, sales and profits continued. At stores that have been open for more than a year, sales growth did decline. Supplier of office supplies Staples ended 0.1 percent higher after figures.
In Jackson Hole, Fed chair Janet Yellen and her European colleague Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank (ECB) are present. They speak on Friday. Investors hope, among other things, on indications of future interest rate policy.
In addition, investors responded to disappointing figures about the sale of existing homes in the US. The number of first applications for unemployment benefits in the United States increased less than last week.
