(Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to be directionless at the opening on Friday and European stock markets are progressing slightly at mid-session, consolidating after the records hit the day before and while several ECB political leaders are due to speak during the day.
Futures on New York indices signal an opening on Wall Street up 0.06% for the Dow Jones but down 0.01% for the Standard & Poor’s-500 and 0.12% for the Nasdaq.
In Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.53% to 7,953.66 around 11:49 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax gained 0.03% just like the FTSE in London.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 0.23%, the Eurozone EuroStoxx 50 by 0.26% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.21%.
The European stock markets are moving around balance on Friday after the strong progression the day before due to the results of Nvidia, heavyweight in artificial intelligence, which caused a rush towards risky assets.
The session is also marked by a certain wait-and-see attitude before the comments of political leaders of the European Central Bank (ECB), including those of the influential Isabel Schnabel at 1:00 p.m. GMT, while investors seek clues on the timetable of the expected cuts interest rates.
The President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, for her part said that the data on wage growth in the fourth quarter was encouraging but not yet sufficient to give the Frankfurt institute the certainty that inflation had been defeated.
These statements are all the more followed as consumer inflation forecasts in the euro zone for the next 12 months increased to 3.3% in January compared to 3.2% in December, the ECB said on Friday, which reinforces fears that the final phase of controlling inflation will be difficult to achieve.
The President of the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, for his part, called on the ECB on Friday to avoid acting too quickly, judging that an early reduction risked preventing the inflation target of 2% from being achieved.
On the indicators front, the revised reading of German GDP confirmed on Friday that Europe’s largest economy had contracted by 0.3% over the last three months of 2023, while the morale of German entrepreneurs increased significantly. slightly improved in February.
VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
Wall Street is expected to be mixed on Friday after the previous session’s rally with Nvidia’s results, which revived enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.
VALUES IN EUROPE
Fnac Darty climbs 3.3% after the publication of its results for 2023, marked by a decline in operating income but strong cash generation.
Bouygues lost 2.8% after signing an exclusivity agreement for the takeover of La Poste Telecom.
British bank Standard Chartered gains 9% as it announced a billion-dollar share buyback after an 18% increase in profits in 2023.
RATE
The interest rate markets remain rather calm in the absence of notable data on Friday.
The yield on the German ten-year rose by 1.3 basis points to 2.448% and that of the two-year by 1.6 bp to 2.9275%.
The US bond markets are calm, with the ten-year Treasuries yield gaining 1.2 basis points to 4.3387% and the two-year Treasury yield almost 2 bps to 4.7327%.
CHANGES
The foreign exchange markets are also wait-and-see.
The dollar fell (-0.04%) against a basket of reference currencies, while the euro gained 0.04% to 1.0827 dollars.
OIL
Oil prices are retreating and on track to end a two-week streak of gains.
Brent lost 1.37% to $82.52 per barrel, with American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) dropping 1.53% to $77.41.
(Some data may have a slight lag)
(Written by Diana Mandiá)
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