by Claude Chendjou

PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to fall on Friday before the publication of an inflation indicator closely followed by the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) and the main European stock markets, apart from London, are also down mid-session in a context of caution linked to fears about interest rates and geopolitical tensions.

Futures on New York indices signal an opening on Wall Street down 0.57% for the Dow Jones, 0.62% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.84% ​​for the Nasdaq. In Paris, the CAC 40 fell by 0.4% to 7,288.07 points around 12:20 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax drops 0.47%. In London, the FTSE, which ended in decline on Thursday, stands out with a rebound of 0.19% on Friday, driven in particular by energy stocks.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.2%, the Eurozone EuroStoxx 50 0.51% and the Stoxx 600 0.05%.

Over the week as a whole, the CAC 40 has lost 0.81% at this stage and the Stoxx 600 0.44%, while on Wall Street the weekly decline is more marked with -1.99% for the Dow Jones , -1.64% for the S&P-500 and -1.67% for the Nasdaq.

The gap in the equity markets on both sides of the Atlantic is essentially linked to the publication of quarterly company results, the season being practically over on Wall Street while in Europe it is in full swing.

Macroeconomic concerns remain strong in both regions, however, with the latest indicators pointing to resilient activity and still-high inflation despite central banks’ desire to curb demand.

German central bank boss Joachim Nagel said on Friday that big interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank (ECB) may be needed after March, while the US Treasury Secretary and former Fed chair, Janet Yellen pointed out that underlying inflation remained high.

In the United States will be published this Friday at 1:30 p.m. GMT the figures for household income and expenditure for the month of January, a statistic that includes the PCE price index, closely followed by the Fed. The Reuters consensus forecasts an acceleration of the “core PCE” to 0.4% over one month and a slowdown to 4.3% over one year.

Geopolitical tensions at the dawn of the second year of the war in Ukraine do not favor risk-taking either, as no solution seems to emerge in the short term in the conflict, while the finance ministers of the G20 countries meet in Bangalore, India, look at the economic impact of war.

WALL STREET VALUES TO FOLLOW

Boeing lost nearly 3% on the market after announcing the temporary suspension of deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner for an analysis of an element of the aircraft’s fuselage.

VALUES IN EUROPE

The positive trend in Europe is once again supported by the financial publications of companies with in particular Saint-Gobain which gained 4.46% thanks to the announcement of a record turnover in 2022. The index of construction takes 0.44%.

In the automobile, down 0.89%, the equipment manufacturer Valeo fell 6.90%, its results and forecasts having disappointed.

Elsewhere in Europe, BASF dropped 5.82% as the German chemical group warned of its annual profit and suspended a share buyback program.

Leading the Stoxx 600, Swedish medical equipment maker Elekta jumped 9.56% after better than expected quarterly earnings.

RATE

The ten-year German Bund yield is practically stable, at 2.48%, after the downward revision of GDP (-0.4% from -0.2%) of Europe’s largest economy in the fourth quarter 2022.

In the United States, the yield on Treasuries with the same maturity rose by around two basis points, to 3.90%, before the publication of inflation.

CHANGES

The dollar is up 0.27% against a basket of major international currencies and hit a seven-week high on Friday as investors brace for high interest rates for an extended period.

The greenback is heading at this point for a gain of 2.5% over the month and for a fourth week in a row in the green.

The euro fell 0.18% to 1.0576 dollars.

The Japanese currency is trading at 135.55 yen for one dollar (+0.63%) while the consumer price index in Japan reached a new record of 4.2% at an annual rate in January and Kazuo Ueda , appointed by the government to be the next governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), deemed the institution’s ultra-accommodative policy appropriate during a hearing before Parliament.

OIL

Oil prices continue to rebound, driven by a possible drop in Russian crude exports in March. They should, however, over the whole week show stagnation and a decline of 14% over one year compared to their level at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Brent rose 0.57% to 82.68 dollars a barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) gained 0.54% to 75.8 dollars.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)

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