by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to rise slightly on Wednesday at the opening and European stock markets are also in the green at mid-session in trading without much conviction in the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions American (Fed).
New York index futures signal Wall Street opening up 0.12% for the Dow Jones, 0.11% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.22% for the Nasdaq.
In Paris, the CAC 40 advanced 0.36% to 7,570.59 around 12:20 GMT, very close to its session record set the day before at 7,582.47 points. In Frankfurt, the Dax gained 0.16%, also very close to its historic peak of 16,837.18 points. In London, the FTSE rose by 0.32%.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index is up 0.38%, the eurozone EuroStoxx 50 is up 0.30% and the Stoxx 600 is up 0.33%.
Investors who are betting on a reduction in interest rates from major central banks in 2024 are awaiting the last announcements of the year from the big financiers to amplify or not the “Christmas rally” while the Fed FOMC has been meeting since Tuesday .
The American central bank will publish a monetary policy statement at 7:00 p.m. GMT which will be followed half an hour later by a press conference by its president, Jerome Powell.
The decisions of the central banks of the euro zone, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway are scheduled for Thursday.
For all these banks, the markets expect a status quo on their rates this month and a drop of more than 100 basis points in the cost of credit in the United States and the euro zone, given the slowdown in inflationary pressures.
However, some analysts consider the markets’ optimism to be exaggerated.
“We expect Powell to push back against expectations in favor of anticipated aggressive rate cuts. While the slowdown in inflation will be welcomed, we believe it is too early for the Fed to declare victory against inflation “, writes Mohit Kumar, chief economist at Jefferies.
VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
Pfizer fell 5.5% in pre-market trading, with the laboratory announcing on Wednesday that it anticipated profit and turnover for 2024 below Wall Street expectations.
Tesla fell 1.5% in pre-market trading after indicating that its Model 3 RWD and Long Range vehicles would lose a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 in the United States.
Mastercard and Visa are in the sights of the British payment regulator, which proposed on Wednesday to cap the fees charged by the two groups on transactions carried out between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
VALUES IN EUROPE
Renault fell 1.11% after the French car manufacturer announced a capital loss of one billion euros resulting from the sale of part of its stake in Nissan.
Inditex, the owner of Zara, gained 1.22% thanks to a jump of 32.5% in its net profit over nine months.
The Entain betting and gaming group jumped 4.61% after the announcement of the departure with immediate effect of its managing director, Jette Nygaard-Andersen.
BASF advances by 4.75%, UBS having switched to “purchase” on the German group.
RATE
The yield on ten-year US Treasuries fell by almost three basis points, to 4.1814%, while the money markets are counting with a probability of 76.6% on a drop of at least 25 basis points in bond rates. the Fed from May, according to the CME Group’s Fedwatch barometer.
The yield on the German Bund of the same maturity fell by almost five basis points, to 2.185%, a long way from the seven-month low reached last week, at 2.1666%.
CHANGES
The dollar index, which measures the fluctuations of the greenback against a basket of international currencies, gains 0.08%, trying to regain part of the ground lost the day before (-0.31%), while awaiting announcements. of the Fed.
The euro is almost unchanged at 1.0784 dollars (-0.07%).
The pound sterling fell 0.33% to $1.252 after the publication of the British gross domestic product (GDP) for the month of October which raised fears of a recession while the Bank of England (BoE) continued to consider a decline premature. next of its rates.
OIL
The oil market rebounded slightly after losing more than 3% on Tuesday, falling to a six-month low, amid fears of oversupply.
The countries participating in the world climate conference (COP28) also reached an agreement on Wednesday on a gradual exit from fossil fuels.
Brent advanced 0.23% to $73.41 per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) rose 0.28% to $68.80.
(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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