Europe ends up in disarray after US employment, Footsie record


(Rpt title typos)

by Diana Mandia

(Reuters) – European stocks ended a busy session in disarray on Friday as new corporate earnings data, European PMIs and U.S. jobs data stoked policy fears Federal Reserve currency.

In Paris, the CAC 40 ended up 0.94% at 7,233.94 points after evolving for a good part of the day in the red.

Britain’s Footsie rose 1.04% to close at a record high on the back of the pound’s decline against the dollar and hopes that the Bank of England will soon stop raising its key rate.

For its part, the German Dax lost 0.21%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index rose 0.4%, the FTSEurofirst 300 0.47% and the Stoxx 600 0.34%.

THE INDICATORS OF THE DAY

After the announcements of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) on Wednesday and the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) on Thursday on the rate, the session this Friday was animated by the publication of several indicators which did not fully confirm the scenario of a possible marked slowdown in inflation and a soft landing for the economy.

Although final figures on private sector activity in the euro zone in January showed a return to growth and its highest level for seven months, some analysts believe that the recovery is marginal.

In Great Britain, the services sector fell in January to its lowest level in two years with a PMI index of 48.7.

Also watched by the markets, producer prices in December in the euro zone recorded a stronger than expected increase of 24.6% over one year, due to the rise in the cost of durable consumer goods, which contrasts with hopes of a possible marked slowdown in inflation.

The publication of the highly anticipated US Department of Labor report also showed that the US economy had created many more jobs than expected in January. Another statistic on the program, activity in the service sector, measured by the ISM index, returned to growth last month.

VALUES

Real estate (-2.32%) suffered the biggest drop in Europe on profit taking in the aftermath of the sharp rise in the index in the prospect of a lull in interest rates.

In the news of the results in Europe, Sanofi ended down 1.87% after the announcement by the laboratory of a forecast of moderate growth in profit this year.

The Spanish bank Caixabank fell 2.5% after the publication of its financial accounts, while the specialist in navigation systems and digital cartography TomTom jumped 4.6% thanks to the increase in its forecast of turnover. business for this year.

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, for its part fell 2.9% after giving a cautious estimate of its profits for 2023, despite a strong fourth quarter.

AT WALL STREET

Shortly after the close in Europe, Wall Street tended to erase its initial losses after the publication of the US employment report which fueled fears of a longer-than-expected monetary tightening by the Fed.

The Dow Jones rose 0.23%, while the Standard & Poor’s-500 lost 0.16% and the Nasdaq lost 0.09%.

In values, the session was marked by the disappointing results of American giants such as Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, which put an end to the upturn in high-growth stocks during the last two sessions.

CHANGES

The dollar is gaining ground (+0.94%) against a basket of international currencies after the US employment report which seems to give the Fed more leeway to continue raising its rates.

For its part, the euro lost 0.77% to 1.0829 dollars while the pound sterling lost more than 1% against the greenback, to 1.2080 dollars, after having already lost more than 1% the day before.

RATE

US Treasury bond yields rebounded strongly after the US labor market report: the ten-year rate gained more than 12 basis points, to 3.5209%.

That of the German Bund of the same maturity, benchmark for the whole of the euro zone, climbed by 13 basis points to return to 2.191%.

OIL

Oil prices are trending sharply lower and heading for a weekly pullback as investors seek more clarity on the impending EU embargo on Russian refined products and more signs of demand recovery in China.

Brent fell 2% to $80.50 a barrel and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) fell 2.2% to $74.19.

TO BE FOLLOWED ON MONDAY:

(Written by Diana Mandiá, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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