EUROPE FINDS IN THE RED
by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – European stock markets chained a second consecutive session on Monday in the red, while Wall Street also fell mid-term, equity markets being penalized by risk aversion amid concerns on the spread of Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 0.82% to 6,870.1 points. The British Footsie lost 0.99% and the German Dax 1.88%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index fell by 1.3%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 1.41% and the Stoxx 600 by 1.38%.
The establishment since Sunday of a new lockdown in the Netherlands to curb the COVID-19 epidemic has heightened investor concerns as the threat of new restrictive measures in Europe looms over the crucial holiday season. year in anticipation of the release of the Omicron variant.
“The speed at which the virus is spreading raises fears that governments impose more stringent restrictions that could restrict movement and hamper economic activity,” said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets.
VALUES IN EUROPE
In Europe, the plunge in oil prices, linked to fears about global demand, weighed on the trend. The oil and gas sector fell 1.73%, while groups like TechnipFMC, Eni and BP lost 2.2% to 3.8%.
Securities linked to the transport and leisure sector, particularly exposed by the threat of new health restrictions, have also been abandoned. Their sector index on the Stoxx 600 fell 1.74%. Tour operator TUI and airline Lufthansa dropped 0.6% and 1.96% respectively.
Against the trend, BNP Paribas advanced 0.4% on the sale of its commercial banking activities in the United States for 16.3 billion dollars (around 14.5 billion euros) .
In health, Ipsen plunged 7.3%, its Indian rival Cipla having obtained the green light from the Food and Drug administration, the health authority in the United States, for a concurrent treatment of Somatuline, the flagship product of the group French.
Also in health, the Danish group Novo Nordisk fell 11.7% due to production problems of its new drug against obesity.
A WALL STREET
At close in Europe, the Dow Jones was down 1.81%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 1.77% and the Nasdaq down 1.87%.
The indices suffer both from concerns over the Omicron variant and the risk of Joe Biden’s $ 1.750 billion plan failing in the US Senate after Democrat Joe Manchin’s decision not to support the project.
Goldman Sachs on Monday lowered its quarterly forecast for economic growth in the United States for 2022, arguing that this social reform project was now in danger.
On the sectoral level, all the compartments of the S & P-500 are moving in the red, the most marked declines being for energy and finance, which each drop nearly 3%.
The tourism sector is also suffering, notably with the cruise line Carnival, which lost nearly 3% after the publication of lower than expected turnover.
Novavax (-3.3%) is not taking advantage of the green light from the European Medicines Agency and the European Commission for its vaccine against COVID-19.
Side mergers and acquisitions, the takeover by Oracle of Cerner (+%), a company specializing in medical data, for 28.3 billion dollars (25 billion euros) is not to the taste of investors. The action of the American professional software giant fell by 3.6% after having already lost more than 6% when the first press reports were released on this takeover project.
CHANGES
On the foreign exchange market, the dollar index, victim of a liquidation of positions as the end of the year approached, fell 0.2% against a basket of major international currencies but remained close to its peak of the year at 96.9 points, registered on November 24.
The euro, up 0.47%, traded at $ 1.1291.
The British pound fell 0.26% against the dollar to 1.3209 as the British government refused on Monday to rule out the possibility of restricting gatherings to days of Christmas and New Years.
RATE
The yield on ten-year Treasury bills fell 1.7 points to 1.3851% in reaction to the risk of a failure of Joe Biden’s plan.
The ten-year German Bund rate, which fell to a nearly two-week low during the session, ended up practically stable at -0.364%.
Its French counterpart also ended virtually unchanged at -0.009%.
OIL
The oil market suffers from fears of declining global demand amid new restrictions linked to the spread of the virus.
A barrel of Brent plunged 5.14% to 69.74 dollars and US light crude 6.18% to 66.48 dollars.
(Report Claude Chendjou, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)