The Paris Bourse pared its losses as Wall Street moved in disarray as Jerome Powell delivered his semi-annual monetary policy speech to the Senate Banking Committee.
Shortly after 4 p.m., the Bedroom 40 down 0.97% to 5,906.93 points, in a volume of 1.8 billion euros. In New York, the Dow Jones is stable and the Nasdaq Composite gains 0.6%. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, with a 21% fall since the start of the year, the S&P 500 is on course to complete its worst first half since 1970, under the chairmanship of Richard Nixon.
Powell: the Fed has the tools and the determination
The Federal Reserve Chairman said the central bank is determined to lower inflation and “we act quickly ” to do this. ” We have both the tools we need and the resolve to restore stability prices (…), while indicating that the “ economic conditions are generally favorable “.
” We will look over the next few months for compelling evidence that inflation is falling, in line with our 2% target. “Insisted Jerome Powell, without commenting on the magnitude of the next rate hikes. ” We expect rate hikes to be appropriate and the pace of those hikes will continue to depend on how indicators and the economic outlook evolve. “, he said.
The fall of more than 5% of the barrel of Brent from the North Sea, to 108.27 dollars, like that of 6.5% for the quality WTI to 102.38 illustrate the fears of a sharp slowdown in the world economy, even recession, especially since Joe Biden has called on Congress to suspend federal taxes on gasoline and diesel for three months. He is also preparing to urge the country’s 50 states to temporarily halt their own taxes on petroleum products. In ParisCGG, Vallourec and TotalEnergies drop 8.3%, 6.2% and 3.8% respectively.
ArcelorMittal stuck between JPMorgan and Umicore
ArelorMittal fell 10.3% as JPMorgan downgraded the steelmaker’s stock from “overweight” to “neutral”. In addition, the Belgian Umicore fell by 9% in Brussels. The specialist in the recycling of non-ferrous metals has announced an investment plan of 5 billion euros by 2026, ” significantly higher than Jefferies’ forecasts, which will weigh on their accounts.
Rexel drops 6.4% following an article by Mediapart citing suspicions of tax evasion in Switzerland and illicit price fixing. Schneider-Electric (-3.3%) and Great (-3.7%) are also in turmoil following this article.
Derichebourg loose 7.6%. Oddo BHF lowered its recommendation on the business and environmental services group from “overweight” to “neutral” and reduced its price target from 14.50 to 9.50 euros.
Conversely, Orange gained 0.9% as Barclays went from “underweight” to “online weighting” on the title of the telecom operator.