PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets are moving up slightly on Wednesday morning pending the publication of monthly inflation data in the United States and the minutes of the last meeting of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed). which could give indications on the direction of interest rates.
In Paris, the CAC 40, which is evolving at a historic high, takes 0.26% to 7,409.59 points around 07:40 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 advances by 0.26% and in Frankfurt, the Dax gains 0.19%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index rose by 0.03%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.1% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.09%.
Futures contracts on Wall Street predict a rise of 0.14% for the Dow Jones, but a decline of 0.01% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.22% for the Nasdaq the day after a session in dispersed order where only the Dow Jones finished in the green.
The US Consumer Price Statistics (CPI) for March is due at 12:30 GMT and the Reuters consensus expects the CPI to decelerate to 0.2% over one month and 5.2% over one year. The “core” CPI index, the most followed by the Fed, could however accelerate at an annual rate to 5.6% against 5.5% in February.
The minutes of the March 21-22 Fed meeting are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. GMT.
These two publications could provide elements on the trajectory of rates as the market expects a 66% probability of a 25 basis point increase in the cost of credit in May, according to the Fedwatch barometer.
“Investors are hoping Wednesday’s inflation data could signal the Fed is nearing the end of its rate hike cycle,” said Harry Ottley, an economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
On the stock market, the positive trend in Europe is driven in particular by the defensive real estate compartment (+0.69%) with, for example, Unibail Rodamco which takes 1.06%, the best performance of the CAC 40.
In the luxury sector, where LVMH (+0.29%) must publish its quarterly results after the close, L’Oréal yields 0.86% after the lowering of the recommendation of Deutsche Bank to “hold” against “buy” on the value.
Scor gained 3.34% after announcing its financial and solvency targets for this year.
Elsewhere in Europe, truck maker AB Volvo jumped 7.97% on record first-quarter profit.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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