Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced Friday that the umbrella of US central banks could begin to phase out the purchases of government and corporate bonds that the Fed has used to support the economy during this year’s Corona crisis. However, his wording was more cautious than investors expected and they haven’t seen an announcement at the next policy meeting yet.

Big tech companies like Apple (+3%) and Amazon (+2.2%) have benefited from today’s bargain hunters. Payment services provider PayPal advanced 3.6% after reports that the company plans to create a stock trading platform for its customers in the United States.

The Nasdaq Technical Exchange closed 0.9% higher. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4%. With that said, the Dow closed 0.2% lower.

Because of Hurricane Ida, there was also the necessary attention to the oil sector. Part of the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico was shut down due to IDA. The price of a barrel of US oil rose 0.4% to $69.01. A hurricane could cost insurance companies at least $15 billion. But analysts do not rule out the possibility that insurance companies’ costs could reach $20 billion or more.

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Shares of Moderna Biotechnology Inc were down 3%. More contaminated doses of the Spikevax coronavirus vaccine have been found in Japan. There may have been a million contaminated doses. Two people are believed to have died from contaminated vaccines.

Confirmation rate rose 47% after it announced a partnership with Amazon. The fintech company will allow payments in installments to Amazon customers who spend more than $50.

Shares of Chinese gaming company NetEase, also listed in the US, fell 3.4%. China has banned children from playing online games for more than three hours a week and only on Fridays, weekends and public holidays.

And space startup Astra Space fell by 18.7%. A test launch of the rocket the company uses to carry satellites into space fails. The missile’s flight had to be aborted prematurely after 2.5 minutes.