by Claude Chendjou

PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to rise slightly on Thursday at the opening and European stock markets rebound cautiously mid-session from a three-week low after two consecutive sessions in the red, driven by the health and Energy.

New York index futures signal Wall Street opening up 0.1% for the Dow Jones, 0.05% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.06% for the Nasdaq.

In Paris, the CAC 40 nibbled 0.01% to 7,412.78 around 12:05 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax increased by 0.14% and in London, the FTSE advanced by 0.11%.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.16%, the EuroStoxx 50 of the euro zone was stable (-0.01%) and the Stoxx 600 almost unchanged (+0.05%).

The positive trend in stocks in Europe results from a technical rebound after the sharp decline the day before, which saw the Stoxx 600 fall to its lowest level since December 14.

It also comes in the wake of a Caixan PMI indicator on services in China considered rather encouraging, the sector having progressed last month to 52.9, against 51.5 in November, the fastest pace in five months .

While waiting for data on services activity in the United States, the sectoral PMIs in Europe, published in the morning, were however disappointing, since they remained in a contraction zone in France, Germany and the rest of the euro zone. Only Great Britain seems to have escaped the slump with a services PMI improving to 53.4 in December, its highest level since June.

In other indicators of the day, inflation in France, calculated according to European standards, accelerated again in December to 4.1% with energy and services. Investors are now awaiting German inflation data at 1:00 p.m. GMT before that of the entire currency bloc on Friday.

Data collected from six German states suggests a rebound in prices at the national level in December in Europe’s largest economy.

However, these gloomy indicators have not dampened market morale, which remains mainly focused on the expected drop in rates this year.

“There remains a lot of risk appetite for European stocks and the rebound we are seeing could last a little longer,” says Anthi Tsouvali, multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets.

VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET

Electronic chip manufacturers should bounce back after a difficult start to the year: Advanced Micro Devices is up 1% in pre-market trading, Intel is up 1.4% and Nvidia is up 0.7%. Among the “tech” giants, Apple is the only company expected to decline, with a decline of 0.6% in pre-market trading, after Piper Sandler downgraded its recommendation to “underweight” from “neutral”. .

Nike and Foot Locker each lost 1.4% in pre-market trading after the warning from British distributor JD Sports on its annual profit forecast.

VALUES IN EUROPE

In Europe, Adidas (-4.55%) and Puma (-4.4%) are in the red in the wake of JD Sports which plunges by 23.86%.

The British fashion retailer Next, at the top of the Stoxx 600, on the other hand gained 3.98% thanks to the increase in its profit forecast for the current annual fiscal year.

The German pharmaceutical group Evotec fell by 20% after the announcement of the surprise departure of its chairman of the board Werner Lanthaler.

In Paris, Carrefour, which indicated that it no longer wanted to sell PepsiCo products due to the price increase, lost 0.45%.

Sectorally, energy gained 1.27% with the rise in oil prices, with the Norwegian Equinor leading the index’s gains.

The health sector (+0.33%) is also doing well, notably with Novo Nordisk, which is up 1.58%.

RATE

The ten-year German Bund yield jumped almost eight basis points, to 2.091%, after inflation figures in several eurozone countries. It hit a one-year low last week at 1.896%.

In the United States, the yield on Treasuries of the same maturity rose 5.8 basis points, to 3.9648% before the publication on Friday of the official report on employment in the country and the ADP firm’s survey on the bond market. work scheduled for this Thursday at 1:15 p.m. GMT.

The minutes of the last monetary policy meeting of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), published Wednesday evening, provided little insight into the pace of rate cuts hoped for by the markets.

CHANGES

The dollar fell by 0.16% against a basket of reference currencies after hitting a three-week peak on Wednesday at 102.73 points.

The euro stood at 1.0946 dollars (+0.23%), after falling to a two-week low on Wednesday, while the pound sterling rose 0.24% to 1.2692 dollars.

OIL

The oil market is driven by supply concerns after a disruption at an oil field in Libya and tensions in the Middle East: the barrel of Brent rose 0.87% to 78.93 dollars and that of American light crude ( WTI) gained 1.09% to $73.49.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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