Paris (awp/afp) – The worrying outlook for the international economy kept global stock markets in the red on Friday, the publication of the employment report in the United States having failed to change the general trend.
After recording one of the largest point losses in its history on Thursday, Wall Street fell further in the first trade: the Dow Jones yielded 1.44%, the Nasdaq 2.23% and the S&P500 1.77% around 2:00 p.m. GMT .
In Europe, the markets remained gloomy, Paris falling by 2.22%, London by 1.86% and Frankfurt by 2.09%. In Switzerland, the SMI fell sharply by 1.54%.
The US job market confirmed its strength in April, with an unemployment rate stable at 3.6% and above all stronger than expected job creation, according to data from the Labor Department released on Friday.
Wages continued to rise, although at a slightly slower pace, and the rate of participation in the labor market is falling, which further increases the pressure on wages.
Not enough to radically change the dilemma facing the US Federal Reserve, between the fight against inflation and the risk of dragging the United States into recession.
On Wednesday, the institution raised its key rates by half a percentage point, the highest level for 20 years, but its president Jerome Powell ruled out an even stronger tightening, of three quarters of a percentage point, during the next meetings.
“There are no big surprises in today’s report. It confirms that the labor market is tight, which allows the Fed to have the latitude to tackle price stability” continuing to harden its policy, says Jason Pride, head of investment at Glenmede.
The event did not stop the bullish frenzy in the bond market. The ten-year US rate continued to soar, even exceeding 3.12% before falling to 3.06% around 2:00 p.m. GMT.
Rates of the same maturity in Europe followed suit, with the German ten-year at 1.09% and the French at 1.61%, both at their highest since 2014.
The gap between German and Italian interests over the ten-year period even exceeded two percentage points, for the first time since the start of the health crisis.
Leonardo supports the defense
The Italian aeronautics and defense giant Leonardo posted a net profit of 74 million euros in the first quarter, thanks to the good performance of its military branch, and positioned itself in view of the increase in the budgets of defense in Europe.
The title rose by 0.80%, and other defense companies, such as BAE Systems in London (+0.68%), Dassault Aviation (-0.31%) and Thalès (-0.24%) at Paris, bucked the trend.
IAG in the air
The airline group IAG, parent company of British Airways and Iberia, lost 9.03% after announcing a reduced – but still very significant – loss of 787 million pounds in the first quarter, despite a forecast of a return to profits from the second quarter.
On the side of oil and currencies
Oil continued to rise, still driven by the proposed European embargo on Russian oil, OPEC+ maintaining its strategy of only marginally opening its crude taps.
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in July rose 0.76% to 111.74 dollars around 1:45 p.m. GMT.
The barrel of American WTI for delivery in June took 0.54% to 108.85 dollars.
The euro rose 0.30% against the greenback, to 1.0574 dollars, after comments by the governor of the Banque de France who foresees the end of the negative rates of the European Central Bank for the end of 2022.
The pound weakened further by 0.31% to 1.2323 dollars, after having reached a low in almost two years following the announcements of the BoE.
Bitcoin, heckled during the previous session, continued its decline, (-2.01%) to 35,720 dollars.
dpa/al