by Pauline Foret

(Reuters) – European stock markets ended higher on Friday after a two-day closure and a particularly gloomy month of December.

In Paris, the CAC 40 ended up 1.00% at 7,355.37 points. In Frankfurt, the Dax rose by 0.55% and in London, the FTSE 100 rose by 0.16%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index is up 0.71%, the FTSEurofirst 300 is up 0.69% and the Stoxx 600 is up 0.57%.

The Stoxx 600 recovered some of the losses suffered at the beginning of the month, driven in particular by the technology sector and the pharmaceutical sector in the wake of Novo Nordisk and Bavarian Nordic, which climbed 2.14% and 3.49% respectively.

The session was nevertheless marked by particularly low trading volumes as investors still seem to be taking advantage of the holiday period.

This positive weekend for European indices reverses the so far gloomy trend for the month of December. If the S&P 500 soared by 26.6% over the year 2024, the Stoxx 600 shows a much more modest annual increase of 5.7%.

“Europe is suffering because of gloomy economic and growth forecasts, and partly also because of economic conditions in China,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.

VALUES

In Europe, the big loser of the session was Delivery Hero, which fell 5.04% to last place on the Stoxx 600 after the Taiwanese authorities blocked the sale of its Foodpanda branch to Uber.

A WALL STREET

Across the Atlantic, the main indices deepened their losses at mid-session, weighed down by the fall of “megacaps” against a backdrop of rising American bond yields.

At closing time in Europe, the Dow Jones lost 0.83%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 1.24% and the Nasdaq Composite 1.80%.

CHANGES

The yen regains strength against the dollar late Friday after a summary of the latest meeting of the Bank of Japan showed that more and more decision-makers are in favor of an upcoming hike in key rates .

The greenback lost 0.17% against a basket of reference currencies.

The euro gained 0.09% to 1.0431 dollars, nevertheless remaining at its lowest level in two years.

RATE

US long-term bond yields are rising on Friday after a successful auction of seven-year bonds.

The yield on ten-year Treasuries climbs 0.8 basis points to 4.5869%. The two-year, on the other hand, lost 2.2 basis points to 4.3097%.

The ten-year German Bund yield gained 0.1 basis point to 2.3920% and the two-year 0.6 basis point to 2.1090%.

OIL

Oil prices are higher on Friday and on track to end the week on a positive note, driven by expectations of an economic recovery in China, the largest importer of natural resources, and forecasts of a decline in inventories in the United States.

Brent advanced 0.98% to $73.98 per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) rose 1.11% to $70.39.

TO BE CONTINUED ON MONDAY:

THE SITUATION ON THE MARKETS

(Some data may have a slight lag)

(Written by Pauline Foret)

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