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The blue-chip Dow powered to its fifth consecutive record high on Friday and the S&P 500 closed slightly higher as investors bought shares that should benefit from a strong reopening of the U.S. economy, an outlook signaled by rising yields in the bond market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 293.05 points, or 0.9%, to close at 32,778.64 and the S&P 500 gained 4 points, or 0.10%, to 3,943.34. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 78.81 points, or 0.59%, to end at 13,319.87.
Rising bond yields meanwhile dragged European stocks lower, although major bourses were set for weekly gains as stimulus and vaccination programmes spurred hopes of a solid economic recovery. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.3% after a four-session winning streak drove it to pre-pandemic highs a day earlier. The index posted weekly gains of 3.5%, its best performance since November.
Maltese markets also sank, with the MSE Equity Total Return Index closing down 0.35 percent at 7,844.819 points. MaltaPost Plc led the losses with shares down 5.74 percent at €1.15, followed by Malta International Airport which fell 2.54 percent to €5.75. GO Plc posted the only gain with shares up 2.94 percent at €3.50.
Qualcomm faces unexpected demand
Qualcomm Inc is struggling to keep up with demand for its processor chips used in smartphones and gadgets, as a chip shortage that first hit the auto industry spreads across the electronics business. Demand for Qualcomm’s chips has soared in the past months as Android phone makers seek to win over customers abandoning phones produced by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd due to U.S. sanctions. Qualcomm has found it hard to meet this higher-than-expected demand, in part due to a shortage of some subcomponents used in its chips.
A surge in demand for consumer electronics has driven a global chip shortage that has idled car factories. The shortage has so far centered largely on chips made using older technology rather than the advanced phone processors Qualcomm designs. Qualcomm’s flagship application processor, the Snapdragon 888, is still new. Key parts of it come from Samsung Electronics’ separate chipmaking division and use a new 5-nanonmeter manufacturing process that is hard to scale up quickly.
Source: Reuters
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