by Claude Chendjou

PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to be green on Thursday ahead of the release of U.S. gross domestic product in the first quarter and the main European stock markets, apart from London, are also oriented cautiously higher at mid-session after solid corporate results. in banking, consumer and manufacturing, alleviating fears of a recession.

Futures on New York indices signal an opening of Wall Street up 0.47% for the Dow Jones, 0.64% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 1.07% for the Nasdaq.

In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.43% to 7,498.7 around 12:15 GMT.

In Frankfurt, the Dax advances by 0.16%. In London, however, the FTSE fell by 0.05%.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.25%, the eurozone’s EuroStoxx 50 0.31% and the Stoxx 600 0.24%.

While awaiting the publication at 12:30 GMT of the American GDP, the first key macroeconomic data before the meetings next week of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB), investors are focusing on a new rain of results from businesses.

The Reuters consensus forecasts growth of 2% at an annualized rate after a gain of 2.6% the previous quarter.

“The earnings season in the United States is a big driver. Some of the big names in technology have delivered better than expected results,” notes Richard Flax, chief investment officer at Moneyfarm.

“We’re looking at the earnings numbers and they’re really not bad,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson, referring in particular to publications from Unilever and Barclays.

VALUES IN EUROPE

The European banking sector, which suffered in previous sessions from mistrust around First Republic Bank, rebounded by 1.06%.

It is notably supported by Deutsche Bank (+3.1%) which on Thursday reported a 9% increase in its profit in the first quarter, a result better than expected.

Barclays also posted a profit in the first quarter that exceeded expectations and took 4.09%.

In consumption, Unilever advances by 1.73% after better than expected sales in the first quarter, while in industry (1.38%), at the top of the Stoxx 600, Michelin takes 1.17%, Schneider Electric 2 .67% and Air Liquide 0.57% after their quarterly publications.

Listed results deemed disappointing, Sanofi drops 1.01%, Universal Music Group 3.81% and TotalEnergies 2.16%.

In addition to the financial publications, the session was animated by the takeover bid by Deutsche Börse (-6.52%) on the Danish software group SimCorp (+38.28%) for 3.9 billion euros.

Meta Platforms climbed 10.7% in pre-market trading after reporting quarterly sales up for the first time in nearly a year on Wednesday and an April-June revenue forecast above expectations. expectations.

The title has gained 74% since the start of the year, the second best performance in the S&P-500 behind Nvidia Corp.

Caterpillar gained 3.2% in pre-market after the publication Thursday of a quarterly profit above Wall Street expectations in a context of increased infrastructure spending in the United States.

CHANGES

The dollar is stable (-0.03%) on Thursday against a basket of benchmark currencies ahead of US GDP data.

The euro, up 0.02% at $1.1042, hovered near the one-year high against the greenback hit Wednesday at $1.1096. Currency traders are counting on continued monetary tightening by the ECB, while that of the Fed is deemed to be nearing the end.

RATE

The ten-year German Bund yield, a benchmark for the euro zone, rose 2.5 basis points to 2.404% and that of US Treasury bonds of the same maturity to 3.4504% (+2.6 points), a Rate hikes of at least 25 basis points are expected next month in the United States and the euro zone.

OIL

Oil prices, which fell nearly 4% on Wednesday due to questions about the American economy, rebounded slightly on Thursday: Brent gained 0.32% to $77.94 a barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate , WTI) 0.27% to $74.50.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)

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