(Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to be in disarray on Thursday as investors digest mixed signals from the Fed on its rates and as renewed concerns about the health of regional banks are felt, while in Europe, stock markets are in the red at mid-session pending the ECB.

Futures on New York indices signal an opening of Wall Street without any real trend. According to available indications, the Dow Jones index could fall by 0.24% and the Standard & Poor’s 500 by 0.27%. The Nasdaq Composite is seen up slightly by 0.08%.

In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.95% to 7,333.29 points. In Frankfurt, the Dax fell 0.80% and in London, the FTSE 100 lost 0.96%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index is down 0.88%, the FTSEurofirst 300 0.91% and the Stoxx 600 0.87%.

The Fed raised its main benchmark rate by 25 basis points as expected. However, the press release accompanying its decision no longer includes the passage in which the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) says it anticipates that “further tightening of monetary policy may be appropriate” in order to achieve the inflation target. by 2%.

But speaking after the release of the statement, the Fed boss said it was premature to say the rate hike campaign was over.

All eyes will now be on the decision by the European Central Bank (ECB), due at 12:15 GMT, in which it is expected to carry out another rate hike of a quarter of a percentage point. However, a bigger rise is also not ruled out, as the European Union struggles with stagnant inflation.

“The ECB is already well behind other central banks in its rate hike cycle and yesterday EU unemployment fell to a new record high of 6.5%,” said analyst Michael Hewson. Head of CMC Markets UK.

“This could prompt the ECB to take a more aggressive stance today and raise rates by 50 basis points, as it is better to do too much on inflation than not enough.” WALL STREET VALUES TO FOLLOW

The banking sector continues to suffer from fears over the financial sector, as the American regional bank PacWest Bancorp fell 36.3% in pre-market trading, after it announced at the end of the day on Wednesday that it was in talks with potential partners and investors about strategic options.

In its wake, other regional banks retreated in trade before the opening of Wall Street. KeyCorp, Valley National Bancorp and Zions Bancorp lost 4.5% to 6.6%, while Western Alliance Bancorp fell 17.2%, even after indicating that it had not suffered unusual deposit losses at following the sale of First Republic.

Also to follow is chipmaker Qualcomm, which on Wednesday reported lower-than-expected third-quarter revenue and profit.

VALUES IN EUROPE

Europe’s energy sector was the only gainer on Thursday, led by British oil tanker Shell, whose stock rose as much as 3.5% in the morning after beating expectations, despite falling slightly from its earnings in the first quarter due to lower energy prices.

Red lantern of the French SBF 120 index, the distributor Casino fell at midday by more than 10% having reported a slowdown in the growth of its turnover in the first quarter, penalized by a still difficult situation in its supermarkets and hypermarkets in France.

RATES Eurozone government bond yields showed little change ahead of the ECB’s expected rate decision.

The ten-year German advance of 0.9 basis points to 2.2590%.

Its French equivalent advanced in the same proportions, at 2.8550%.

The yield on German 2-year bonds, which is sensitive to interest rate expectations, was down 2.7 basis points at 2.6560%.

FOREX The dollar is under pressure, falling 0.0948% against a basket of currencies after the Fed’s decision, allowing the British pound to reach an 11-month high.

The euro took 0.723% at midday to 1.1067 dollars.

The pound is up slightly at 1.2573, but in Asia it hit $1.2595, its highest level since June 2022.

OIL

Oil prices are up on Thursday, but not enough to make up for the more than 9% decline recorded over the past three days on demand concerns in major consuming countries.

A barrel of Brent rose 0.35% to 72.58 dollars and a barrel of American light crude rose 0.03% to 68.62 dollars.

(Some data may show a slight shift)

(Written by Kate Entringer, edited by Matthieu Protard)

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