Paris (awp/afp) – Global markets were trending higher on Tuesday as investors held out hope that the supply of Russian gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline would resume as planned on Thursday.
The rise on Wall Street accelerated sharply after a falling session: the Dow Jones took 1.64%, the S&P 500 1.97% and the Nasdaq 2.27% shortly before 4:00 p.m. GMT.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed optimism on Tuesday that the United States could avoid a recession in the coming months, due to the health of the labor market and consumption.
After opening in the red, European stock markets changed direction. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which is suffering the most from tensions over gas between Russia and the Europeans, jumped 2.69%. Paris took 1.79%, London 1.01% and Milan 2.49%, on the eve of an important political deadline for the survival of the head of the Italian government Mario Draghi. In Zurich, the SMI gained 1.02%.
The euro continued its sharp rebound against the dollar at 1.0246 dollars (+0.98%) around 3:45 p.m. GMT. On Thursday, the European Central Bank must raise its key rates for the first time in more than ten years, in order to fight against inflation.
An increase of 0.25 percentage point has been mentioned by several governors of the institution, but an increase of 0.50 percentage point is also an option considered by investors.
This prospect pushed up banking stocks in Europe, such as Deutsche Bank (+4.47%), Société Générale (+3.97%), Unicredit (+6.40%). The financial sector was also doing well in the United States, with Blackrock up 4.14% and Goldman Sachs up 4.60%.
Equity markets saw their rise accelerate on hopes that Russia will bring its Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline back into service, after a period of maintenance, even with reduced capacity. This context has particularly benefited chemical companies, the most exposed in the event of a scarcity of gas deliveries, in particular BASF (+4.60%), Brenntag (+2.10%) and Covestro (5.81%) in Frankfurt.
Closed since July 11 for maintenance, a long-announced shutdown, the gas pipeline is officially due to start again on Thursday. But in the context of the war in Ukraine, many observers fear this deadline.
“Anyone who entered today hoping for further price increases may be surprised by bad news from Moscow. Some risk still exists,” said CMC Markets analyst Jochen Stanzl.
The price of European benchmark natural gas, the Dutch TTF, fell 1.88% to 154 euros per megawatt hour around 1:45 p.m. GMT, while it was up for most of the session in Europe.
In addition, many companies continue to publish their results, providing investors with elements to clarify the impact of inflation and the economic slowdown, already partly factored into stock prices.
Bitcoin soared 6.75% to $22,950.
The strength of the dollar is hampering some American companies ___
U.S. IT giant IBM delivered results that beat market expectations in the second quarter, but admitted the strong dollar had a big impact on its financial performance. The stock was down sharply by 6.49%.
The American laboratory Johnson & Johnson (-0.69%) and the American toy manufacturer Hasbro (+1.80%) also reported this difficulty during their results.
Competition of orders between Boeing and Airbus ___
The American aircraft manufacturer Boeing accumulated commercial orders on Tuesday, on the second day of the Farnborough air show (United Kingdom), and jumped 4.08% on Wall Street, while its European rival Airbus was more discreet (+1, 44% on the Paris Stock Exchange).
The oil settles ___
Oil prices were down slightly on Tuesday after their strong rebound the day before, torn between fears of recession, falling demand in China and still constrained supply.
Around 3:30 p.m. GMT, a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in September lost 0.36% to 105.91 dollars.
That of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in August, fell 0.29% to 102.34 dollars.
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