(News Bulletin 247) – European stock markets are slowly recovering from the heavy air pocket of the day before: Frankfurt gained 0.4% ahead of Paris (stable) while London lost 0.4%.

Investors were completely taken by surprise by the bankruptcy of SVB, but the intervention of the American authorities made it possible to slow down the selling movement on the markets.

The clearings suffered in recent days give hope for a scenario of ‘resetting’ the counters which would allow the markets to find a new dynamic.

The markets indeed seem to think that a major shift has just occurred and that the Fed has no choice but to limit, or even postpone, its interest rate hike program in order to avoid any risk of ‘systemic’ order.

According to the CME’s FedWatch barometer, market participants estimate the probability of a status quo from the Fed next week at 47%, with that of a 25 basis point hike being estimated at 53%.

Investors will follow, despite everything, with some feverishness the consumer price statistics which will be published one hour before the opening of Wall Street.

Reassuring figures on US inflation could alleviate concerns and encourage investors to return to equities.

In European company news, Volkswagen Group reports that deliveries of BEVs (battery electric vehicles) increased by 26% in 2022. Volkswagen Group remained the BEV market leader in Europe and increased deliveries to China by 68% in 2022. Operating margins before special items increased to 8.1%. Operating profit before special items was 22.5 billion euros, up 13%.

Generali announces its results for 2022 and is pleased to have achieved the best operating result in its history, with continued growth in premiums and net income.

The operating result is 6.5 billion euros (+11.2%), ‘ mainly due to life insurance, as well as the growth of non-life insurance ‘ and the net result increases to 2,912 million euros. euros (+2.3%)

The Italian shoemaker Tod’s announces that its sales reached 1,006 ME in 2022, an increase of nearly 14% compared to the previous financial year (or +11.4% at constant exchange rates).
At the same time, EBIT more than doubled, rising from 24 to 58 ME. The group recorded a net profit of 23 ME, far from the loss of 5.9 ME recorded a year earlier.

Finally, Equinor announces a new ‘commercially interesting’ oil and gas discovery near the Troll field in the North Sea. Volumes are estimated between 24 and 84 million barrels of oil equivalent, with slightly more oil than gas.

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