by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets, apart from Frankfurt, ended lower on Tuesday and Wall Street was also in the red at the end of the morning in New York, the session being marked by risk aversion after numerous corporate publications in Europe and the United States, many of which disappointed.
The banking compartment was particularly hurt by the results of Santander, UBS and the American regional bank First Republic Bank, while investors await this week other financial publications and economic indicators to have a clearer view of the state of the world economy.
Several major central banks around the world are also meeting early next month.
In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 0.56% at 7,531.61 points. The UK Footsie fell 0.27%. The German Dax gained 0.05%, thanks in particular to technology and automotive stocks.
The EuroStoxx 50 index fell by 0.54%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.33% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.40%.
“There is a lot of uncertainty. Investors still don’t know how badly bank lending has been affected by recent developments (…) (or) when inflation will peak sustainably,” Prashant Bhayani said. , Investment Director at BNP Paribas Wealth Management.
Sign of a nervous session, the volatility index on the Euro Stoxx 50 advanced by 4.48% to 17.92 points, while its American equivalent took 7.87% to 18.22 points, while e are approaching the month of May and the famous adage “Sell in may and go away”.
AT WALL STREET
At the time of the close in Europe, the Dow Jones retreated by 0.45%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 by 0.85% and the Nasdaq by 1.11%, while Alphabet and Microsoft, two behemoths of Wall Street, must publish their accounts in the evening.
Among the companies that published during the day, PepsiCo advanced by 2.25% and Centene by 2.77% with the raising of their annual forecasts, while 3M (+0.28%) and Spotify Technology (+5.88% ) are benefiting from their strong quarterly results.
United Parcel Service (UPS) (-9.09%), General Motors (-2.69%), General Electric (-2.43%), McDonald’s (-1.03%), Biogen (-2.83% ) or Halliburton (-3.39%) however disappointed.
First Republic Bank tumbled 29.80% on news that customer deposits fell by more than $100 billion in the first quarter as the bank now considers its options.
Most regional US banks are also in the red, while Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co are down 1.57% and 0.89% respectively. The sector’s index on the S&P-500 fell by 1.39%.
VALUES
In the wake of the fall of First Republic Bank, the European banking compartment (-2.17%) suffered one of the largest falls on the Stoxx 600, notably with Société Générale (-3.24%) and BNP Paribas ( -2.38%), which ended up at the bottom of the CAC 40.
UBS, whose quarterly profit was halved, fell 2.17%, while Santander lost 5.97%, penalized by a 25% drop in its quarterly net profit in Brazil, its main market.
The Swiss groups Nestlé (+0.75%) and Novartis (+4.03%) on the other hand offered some support to the indices with their results and forecasts.
THE INDICATORS OF THE DAY
New home sales in the United States rebounded in March, by 9.6%, despite a high interest rate environment, after falling 3.9% the previous month, according to data from the department. Trade.
The consumer confidence index fell to 101.3 points in April after 104.2 the previous month and a consensus of 104.0.
RATE
Concerns about banks are weighing on bond yields. The ten-year German Bund yield ended down about 11 points, at 2.37%, and the two-year one was down about 12 points, at 2.83%. Their US equivalents respectively lost around nine points, at 3.424%, and around 10 points, at 4.0501%.
FOREIGN EXCHANGES Risk aversion is favoring the dollar, which is up 0.52% against a basket of benchmark currencies, while the euro is back from a high of almost 10 months, at 1.0967 dollar (-0.67 %).
OIL
Uncertainties about the economic situation are affecting oil prices: Brent fell 2.41% to 80.74 dollars a barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) 2.36% to 76.90 dollars.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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