(News Bulletin 247) – European stock markets are moving in dispersed order this Wednesday (+0.2% in London, -0.4% in Frankfurt, -0.3% in Paris), expecting a series of macroeconomic data expected in the course of the afternoon in the United States.

The markets will take note of the results of the ADP survey on employment in the private sector – two days before the publication of the official report on employment -, as well as the non-manufacturing PMI and ISM indices, under the past month.

While waiting for these meetings, the PMI S&P Global composite index of overall activity in the euro zone recovered from 52 in February to 53.7 in March, a 10-month high, thus signaling an acceleration of the growth of the area’s activity.

“The risk of recession in the region therefore continues, for the time being, to recede”, estimates Joe Hayes, economist at S&P Global, warning however that “the latest price data underline the strong probability of further rate hikes of interest’.

For its part, the British services sector continued its recent recovery in March: while the S&P Global/CIPS index fell to 52.9 last month, against 53.5 in February, it remained in the territory of expansion of activity for the second consecutive month.

In terms of values, AstraZeneca takes nearly 2% in London, on the back of the success of a phase III clinical study combining its molecules Imfinzi and Lynparza in the treatment of ovarian cancer, the eighth most common cancer in women. .

Sodexo soars by 10% in Paris, the services group having raised certain annual objectives on the occasion of the publication of first-half results that exceeded expectations, and announced a plan to split its services division benefits and rewards.

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