by Blandine Henault

PARIS (Reuters) – Major European stock markets are expected to open higher again on Friday as broader equity markets benefit from investor optimism over an upcoming government debt ceiling agreement. United States, hopes that also push up bond yields and the dollar.

According to the first indications available, the Parisian CAC 40 could gain 0.35% at the opening. Futures contracts are signaling a rise of 0.36% for the Dax in Frankfurt, 0.28% for the FTSE in London and 0.41% for the EuroStoxx 50.

The European indices have already progressed the day before, Wall Street ended in the green and in Asia, the Nikkei touched a 33-year peak on Friday.

US President Joe Biden and Republican House of Representatives boss Kevin McCarthy agreed to talks on Sunday to try to hammer out a deal to raise the government’s borrowing limit, which would ward off the specter of a default in payment by the United States.

“A deal would remove a significant burden from the economy,” said Ray Attrill, head of currency strategy at National Australia Bank (NAB).

“It also removes a hurdle for the Fed to continue raising rates,” he points out.

With this in mind, the ten-year Treasuries rate is moving to a one-month high and the dollar hit a two-month peak against a basket of benchmark currencies.

VALUES TO FOLLOW:

AT WALL STREET

The New York Stock Exchange was supported on Thursday by hopes of an agreement on the US debt ceiling and the good performance of Walmart, which revised its annual outlook upwards.

The Dow Jones index gained 0.34% to 33,535.91 points. The S&P-500 gained 0.94% to 4,198.05 points and the Nasdaq Composite advanced by 1.51% to 12,688.84 points.

In values, Walmart rose 1.29% after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter results and raising its full-year outlook.

IN ASIA

The Tokyo Stock Exchange gains 0.69% to move to its highest since August 1990, the Japanese market benefiting from a series of positive factors ranging from solid corporate results to optimism over a debt ceiling agreement American.

The Nikkei index climbed to 30,924.57 points just after the open, after crossing the 30,000-point threshold for the first time in 20 months on Wednesday. He is about to sign his seventh consecutive session in the green.

The stock markets of mainland China are for their part in the red, with a decline of 0.23% for the CSI 300, while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange lost 1.21%, penalized by the decline of the tech giant Alibaba ( -4.5%), which reported a less significant increase than expected in its quarterly turnover.

EXCHANGES/RATES

The dollar is stabilizing against a basket of benchmark currencies after hitting a two-month high the day before. The “dollar index” is about to sign a second weekly increase in a row.

The euro is at its lowest since the end of March against the greenback, at 1.0761.

On the bond market, the yield on two-year US government bonds, which generally rises with expectations of rising interest rates, is moving to 4.2467% while it was moving below 4% at the start of the week. .

The yield on ten-year Treasuries stands at 3.6383%, after climbing 20 points from a low this week.

OIL

Oil prices rebounded after a drop of more than 1% the day before, favored by the generally favorable market context.

The barrel of Brent from the North Sea advances by 0.87% to 76.52 dollars and that of American light crude (WTI) takes 0.79% to 72.43 dollars.

(edited by Kate Entringer)

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