Withdrawal in sight in Europe with a new round of results – archyde

by Blandine Henault

PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets are expected to drop slightly Wednesday at the opening after their advance the day before and as investors have to digest a new round of corporate earnings publications.

Futures contracts report a decline of 0.13% for the Parisian CAC 40, 0.23% for the Dax in Frankfurt, 0.07% for the FTSE in London and 0.31% for the EuroStoxx 50 .

European indices took advantage of strong corporate results on Tuesday to end up higher (the Stoxx 600 closed at its highest for two and a half months), also encouraged by the records listed on Wall Street.

The meeting will still be loaded with results publications, notably with announcements from Sodexo and Schneider Electric in Paris, Deutsche Bank and BASF in Frankfurt and Boeing in New York.

A WALL STREET

The New York Stock Exchange finished slightly higher on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones and S & P-500 setting new closing highs, although the session was marked by Facebook’s decline in the aftermath of its earnings release quarterly.

The Dow Jones index gained 0.04% to 35,754.88 points, the S & P-500 gained 0.18% to 4,574.79 points and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.06% to 15,235 , 72 points.

Facebook fell 3.9% after warning that changes Apple made to data protection would negatively impact its digital business in the fourth quarter.

Index futures are currently showing a slight increase at the opening.

IN ASIA

The Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 0.03% after its sharp increase the day before, penalized by the decline of Canon (-5.89%) in reaction to its profit warning and by the caution placed before the legislative elections of Sunday.

Mainland Chinese stock markets are declining with the decline in coal-related values, subject to increased pressure from authorities in the face of rising prices. The CSI 300 of large caps lost 1.38%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was penalized by the decline in technology stocks and gave up 1.73%.

CHANGES

The Australian dollar is sharply higher after inflation figures which showed Australia’s core consumer price index to accelerate to its fastest annual pace since 2015, fueling the prospect of monetary tightening faster than expected.

Forex traders are awaiting monetary policy decisions from the European Central Bank, Japan and Canada by Friday, and initiatives are therefore limited in the rest of the market.

The euro is practically unchanged, on the threshold of 1.16 dollars and the greenback varies little overall against a basket of benchmark currencies.

RATE

The two-year U.S. government bond yield is up nearly two basis points to 0.499%, its highest since March 2020, ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday.

The 10-year Treasuries rate, less sensitive to expectations of a change in the Fed’s monetary policy, was stable at 1.6168%.

Its German equivalent, the benchmark for the euro zone, is also practically unchanged in the first exchanges, at -0.126%.

OIL

Crude prices are moving lower, penalized by a larger than expected increase in crude inventories last week in the United States, according to market sources citing data from the American Petroleum Institute.

The barrel of Brent fell 1.17% to 85.39 dollars and that of US light crude (WTI) dropped 1.25% to 83.59 dollars.

(edited by Marc Angrand)