by Claude Chendjou

PARIS (Reuters) – European stock markets ended lower on Monday, weighed down by cyclical stocks after the publication of PMI activity indices in Europe and disappointing statistics from China.

At the close in Europe, the Dow Jones advanced by 0.01%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 by 0.35% and the Nasdaq by 0.84%. This last index reached a session record, at 20,105.76 points, a week after crossing the 20,000 point mark, driven in particular by stocks linked to artificial intelligence such as Broadcom (+7.01%), whose market capitalization has exceeded 1,000 billion dollars.

In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 0.71% at 7,357.08 points. Ratings agency Moody’s has lowered France’s credit rating as new Prime Minister François Bayrou seeks to form a government.

Political uncertainty also dominates in Germany where the Dax lost 0.45%. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost, as expected, the confidence of the Bundestag, which opens the way to the holding of early legislative elections.

The British Footsie lost 0.46%, weighed down mainly by the energy sector, with retail sales in China falling below expectations in November, a sign of the difficulties of the world’s second largest economy, the main importer of hydrocarbons.

The EuroStoxx 50 index declined by 0.42% and the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.10%. The Stoxx 600 lost 0.12%, the third session in a row in the red, pulled down by cyclical values ​​such as real estate (-1.34%) and automobiles (-2.72%).

In addition to the disappointing data from China, the day’s statistics in Europe were mixed: the PMI index for the manufacturing sector in the euro zone, which has been below the 50 mark separating growth and contraction since mid-2022. activity, remained at 45.2 in November. The services sector, however, has returned to growth.

The rest of the session was dominated by the wait for monetary policy decisions from several major central banks, including that of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) on Wednesday and that of the Bank of England (BoE) on Thursday.

Their announcements should provide clues about the trajectory of interest rates as the market fears a pause in the Fed’s monetary policy after the expected cut on Wednesday.

VALUES IN EUROPE

Vivendi (+41.73%) announced on Monday its dismantling and the listing of its various entities on different stock exchanges: Canal+, its flagship asset, fell by 21.93% on the London Stock Exchange, Havas sold 1.65 % in Amsterdam and Louis Hachette climbed 23.23% in Paris.

Entain plunged 6.28%, due to legal action in Australia against one of its subsidiaries for violating laws against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Novo Nordisk fell 6.28% after announcing an investment plan of 8.5 billion crowns (1.14 billion euros) in a new factory in Denmark for the production of drugs against rare diseases .

CHANGES

The US dollar is rising against a basket of currencies, to nearly 107 points, a three-week high.

The euro nibbles 0.05%, to 1.0508 dollars, against 1.0453 dollars touched at the end of last week, its lowest level since November 26.

Bitcoin is over $106,000, driven by hopes of a national bitcoin reserve in the United States.

RATE

The yield gap between the Bund and the ten-year OAT stands at almost 80 basis points after the downgrade of the French sovereign rating by Moody’s.

The ten-year German Bund yield ended stable, at 2.244%, while its French equivalent gained 1.2 points, to 3.042%.

In the United States, the yield on ten-year Treasury bonds is virtually unchanged, at 4.4046%.

OIL

Oil prices are affected by China: Brent lost 0.89% to $73.81 per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) declined by 1% to $70.58.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Sophie Louet)

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