by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – European stock markets ended lower on Tuesday, weighed down by compartments sensitive to economic developments, while on Wall Street, the trend was cautious at mid-session for two of the three indices, the Nasdaq being backed by Nvidia.
In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 1.29% at 7,209.75 points. The German Dax lost 0.27%. The British Footsie dropped 1.38% after a three-day Spring Bank Holiday-related shutdown.
The EuroStoxx 50 index fell by 0.66% and the FTSEurofirst 300 by 1.01%. The Stoxx 600, which is near a two-month high, lost 0.92%.
At the time of the close in Europe, the Dow Jones fell 0.42% but the Standard & Poor’s 500 advanced 0.10% and the Nasdaq 0.6% after three days of closure also due to “Memorial Day” .
Investors learned on Sunday of a compromise on the American debt between Democrats and Republicans, which must still receive the approval of Congress by June 5. This text will be examined this Tuesday at 19:00 GMT by the House Rules Committee.
“The market is cautiously pricing that a deal has been struck,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital.
In addition to questions about this agreement, a series of economic indicators scheduled for this week in the United States and Europe, relating in particular to PMIs, inflation and above all the monthly report on American employment, favor a wait-and-see attitude.
AT WALL STREET
Nvidia, up 5.75%, on Tuesday became the first semiconductor company to exceed the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold. The group is driven by the announcement of several technological products and partnerships in artificial intelligence (AI).
In its wake, Intel takes 2.86%.
VALUES IN EUROPE
On the European quotation, the compartments of consumption (-2.4%), energy (-2.14%) and banks (-1.61%) registered among the strongest declines, while the defensive segments such as utilities (+0.76%) and real estate (+0.22%) offered some support to the indices.
The technology compartment (+0.42%) was driven by Nvidia, notably allowing Infineon to take 1.34% and STMicroelectronics 1.16%.
Unilever lost 2.97% with the announcement on Tuesday of the departure of its chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly, while Nestle lost 3.32% after the resignation of its chief financial officer Francois-Xavier Roger.
DAILY INDICATORS
Eurozone economic sentiment deteriorated to 96.5 this month from 99.3 the previous month, while consumer confidence in the currency bloc was confirmed at -17.4 in May.
The growth of corporate loans in the euro zone slowed again in April, to +4.6% over one year, against +5.2% the previous month.
CHANGES
The dollar, which recently hit a ten-week peak against a basket of benchmark currencies, is taking a breather (-0.06%).
The euro, which fell the day before to a two-month low, rose to 1.072 dollars (+0.14%).
The pound sterling is displayed at 1.2399 dollars (+0.39%).
RATE
Yields on government bonds in the eurozone fell after a sharper-than-expected slowdown in inflation in May in Spain (+2.9% year on year), ahead of the release of data for the entire bloc on Thursday. .
The ten-year German Bund yield ended down about seven basis points, to 2.36%, and the two-year yield fell 7.6 points, to 2.84%.
In the United States, the hope of an agreement in Congress on the raising of the American debt ceiling causes an easing on the rates: the yields of the ten-year and two-year Treasuries drop 11.6 basis points respectively, at 3.7038%, and 8.7 points at 4.4977%.
OIL
Uncertainty over new OPEC+ production quotas ahead of Sunday’s meeting is weighing on oil prices: Brent fell 4.23% to $73.81 a barrel and WTI 4.11% to 69, $68.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Bertrand Boucey)