by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – European stock markets ended slightly higher on Friday, while Wall Street showed slight variations late in the morning in New York in a session which will be cut short at 6:00 p.m. GMT the day after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Today’s session was notably driven by the distribution compartments in Europe (+0.76) and consumption in the United States (+0.29%) so that Friday marks “Black Friday”, promotional period kicking off the end-of-year celebrations.
At the close in Europe, the Dow Jones rose 0.21%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 was stable (-0.01%) and the Nasdaq fell 0.15%.
In Paris, the CAC 40 ended with a gain of 0.20% to 7,292.8 points. The British Footsie gained 0.11% and the German Dax 0.22%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index increased by 0.28%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.32% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.36%.
Over the week as a whole, the CAC 40 gained 0.81% and the Stoxx 600 0.94%.
In addition to the absence of numerous investors on the markets and the narrowness of trading, the timidity of the stock markets in Europe can also be explained by the day’s indicators which did not encourage risk-taking.
Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted in the third quarter by 0.1%, data from the Federal Statistical Office confirmed.
The adoption of Germany’s 2024 budget was also delayed by the Constitutional Court, even though German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised on Friday to finalize the budget by the end of the year.
As for the Ifo business climate index in Europe’s largest economy, although it has improved since the beginning of November, it remains below expectations.
Investors are also already looking ahead to next week, when inflation indicators will be published in the euro zone and the United States while officials of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the American Federal Reserve ( Fed) are working to temper expectations of a rate cut in the coming months.
VALUES IN EUROPE
Automotive equipment manufacturers Forvia (+2.49%) and Continental (2.03%) benefited from the increase in Barclays’ recommendation to “overweight”.
BASF advanced 1.76% in reaction to information from the Bloomberg agency according to which Abu Dhabi National Oil (ADNOC) plans to buy the energy division of the German group.
The Swedish video game group Evolution gained 1.98% following the announcement of a share buyback plan.
RATE
US sovereign yields are rising on fears that the economy is more resilient than expected and that inflation remains persistent after the publication of the composite PMI index in the United States which shows that activity remained stable in November, at 50.7 points.
Traders pushed back the timetable for the Fed’s first interest rate cut to July 2024.
The ten-year rate takes more than six basis points, to 4.4841%, and the two-year rate takes around four points, to 4.957%.
In Europe, the ten-year German Bund yield ended with a gain of just over two points, at 2.646%.
CHANGES
The dollar fell 0.29% against a basket of reference currencies, close to a two-and-a-half month low hit at the start of the week.
Over the week as a whole, the greenback lost 0.40% after a decline of 1.90% the previous week.
The euro stood at $1.0929, up 0.23%, while the pound sterling gained 0.54%, to $1.2601.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin increased by 2.21% to $38,081, after reaching a peak during the session since May 2022 at $38,383, thanks to a wave of fund deposits in ETFs. The announcement by Christine Lagarde, the president of the ECB, that one of her sons had lost money speculating on cryptoassets apparently left the market unmoved.
OIL
The two main oil references are moving in scattered order but should post their first weekly gain in five weeks over the whole week. Investors are awaiting the decision of OPEC+, which postponed its ministerial meeting to November 30. Sources told Reuters the cartel was close to a compromise with African producers.
Brent rose 0.64% to $81.94 per barrel, while American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) fell 0.42% to $76.78.
(Written by Claude Chendjou)
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