by Augustin Turpin

(Reuters) – European stock markets ended in mixed order on Monday, at the end of a hesitant day and in a context of caution before several publications this week.

In Paris, the CAC 40 ended up 0.4% at 7,450.24 points. The British Footsie lost 0.03% and the German Dax gained 0.68%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index advanced by 0.46%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.27% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.34%.

The markets looked for their direction on Monday, at the start of a week marked by the publication of a burst of indicators and while energy stocks were pulling the indices towards the red.

At the heart of expectations, CPI inflation in the United States for December is expected on Thursday, while inflation figures in Japan and China will be published on Tuesday and Friday respectively. In addition, the major American banks will open the quarterly results season on Friday with their fourth quarter figures.

VALUES

In terms of values, Casino lost 4.3% after announcing that the European Commission had given the green light to the takeover of the group by a consortium led by businessman Daniel Kretinsky.

In Amsterdam, Pharming Group soared 9.2%, the biopharmaceutical group having revised upwards its sales forecasts for Ruconest, its main drug.

European stocks in the energy sector are moving in the red after Saudi Arabia’s announcement of price reductions and while uncertainty remains over the security of maritime transport via the Red Sea route.

Totalenergies lost 3.1%, Technip Energies 4.6% and Shell 3.2% at 4:45 p.m. GMT.

A WALL STREET

US markets are trading in mixed order, with a rebound in large-cap stocks and the semiconductor sector offsetting declines in airline and energy stocks.

Boeing fell 6.2% at 4:45 p.m. GMT after the incident on Friday on one of its 737 MAX 9 models, which led the American aviation authority to order the temporary immobilization of certain aircraft. Airbus, the American aircraft manufacturer’s main competitor, gained 2.5%.

Oil and gas companies are also down with the drop of more than 4% in crude prices. Chevron and Exxon Mobil are down 1.6% and 2.6%, respectively.

TODAY’S INDICATORS

In Germany, industrial orders increased by 0.3% in November, according to data published Monday by the Federal Statistical Office, while demand weakened. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast an increase of 1%.

Retail sales in the euro zone fell slightly by 0.3% in November, in line with analysts’ expectations, according to data published by Eurostat on Monday.

CHANGES

The greenback fell against the euro and yen on Monday as investors continued to digest last week’s mixed US economic data.

The dollar fell (-0.3%) against a basket of reference currencies, while the euro gained 0.29% to 1.0973 dollars.

RATE

Bond yields fell after finishing higher on Friday, lifted by US jobs data, which painted a mixed picture of the strength of the US economy.

In the United States, the Treasury yield lost 6.8 basis points to 3.9737%, and the two-year yield lost 7.7 bps to 4.314%.

The German ten-year yield lost 1.8 bp to 2.125%.

Expectations are now focused on inflation data due Wednesday, which should provide new clues on when the Fed could begin cutting interest rates.

“Friday’s nonfarm payrolls numbers were pretty mixed. The headline number was certainly pretty strong and good, but there were a lot of subsets at this data point that showed greater weakness in the market work,” said Helen Given, a trader at Monex USA.

“There are definitely cracks that are slowing the pace of hiring in the United States and the job market is softening,” she added.

OIL

Oil prices fall on Monday as sharp price cuts from Saudi Arabia and increased OPEC production offset supply concerns sparked by escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East .

Brent dropped 3.91% to $75.68 per barrel, American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) losing 4.63% to $70.39.

“Saudi Arabia is indicating that it wants to remain competitive in the market and is not willing to unilaterally reduce its volume,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, an analyst at SEB, adding that the move made further reductions less likely. unilateral control of production on the part of the world’s leading exporter.

“If we focused only on the fundamentals, including rising inventories, increasing OPEC/non-OPEC production and a lower-than-expected Saudi OSP (official selling price), it would be impossible to be anything else “bearish on crude oil,” said IG analyst Tony Sycamore.

“However, this ignores the fact that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are undeniably rising, which will limit the decline.”

TO BE CONTINUED ON TUESDAY:

(Some data may have a slight lag)

(Written by Augustin Turpin, edited by Zhifan Liu)

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