Paris (awp / afp) – Stock markets were moving rather in the green on Monday, helped by the comments of the American president on the economic outlook, while the statements of the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) made the euro jump.
The New York Stock Exchange opened higher: the Dow Jones gained 1.15%, the S&P 500 0.65% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index was at equilibrium (-0.01%) towards 2.10 p.m. GMT.
At the same time, London took 1.30%, Paris 0.26%, Frankfurt 0.89%, helped by an encouraging indicator for the German economy, but Milan lost 0.51%.
The euro climbed 0.9% against the greenback, to 1.0659 dollars, after gaining more than 1% in the middle of the European session.
To curb inflation, ECB President Christine Lagarde announced that the first rate hike should be decided in July and that the era of negative rates should end by “the end of the third quarter”.
With this message, Ms. Lagarde now admits that “the normality of low inflation (from the years 2012 to 2021) and very low nominal rates is over for good”, comments Holger Schmieding, economist at Berenberg.
Investors were also focusing on comments from Joe Biden, who is currently visiting Japan.
The US president ruled on Monday that a recession could be avoided in the United States, despite the high inflation that the country is currently experiencing and which is pushing the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to tighten its monetary policy more aggressively.
Risk appetite was also boosted by “the US President’s announcement that the trade tariffs imposed on China by the previous Trump administration will be discussed”, with investors seeing it as “a possible de-escalation of the trade war between the two economic superpowers,” said Pierre Veyret, analyst at ActivTrades.
The global economic context is still weighed down by various factors, starting with inflation and geopolitical risks, and experts are wondering if the equity market has already bottomed out or if the downward trend will continue.
coveted VMware
US semiconductor maker Broadcom (-4.78%) is in advanced talks to buy software and remote computing company VMware, according to information published Sunday by the Wall Street Journal. It would be one of the biggest operations of the year according to the daily. The price of VMware, whose market value amounts to 40 billion dollars, jumped 18.42%.
Kingfisher confirms its targets
The British DIY store group Kingfisher (+ 2.35% around 2:05 p.m. GMT), owner in France of the Castorama and Brico Dépôt brands, has confirmed all of its objectives. It also announced a strengthening of its share buyback program.
Complete takeover of Siemens Gamesa
The German group Siemens Energy (-1.83% in Frankfurt) will spend 4 billion euros to hold all of Siemens Gamesa (+6.21% in Madrid), its subsidiary in wind power in great difficulty, with the intention to withdraw it from the stock market, said Monday its boss Christian Bruch.
Oil continues to rise
Oil prices were up slightly, supported by the easing of health restrictions in China, reassuring on demand, as by the European plan to embargo Russian oil which is looming.
Around 2:05 p.m. GMT, a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in July took 0.17% to 112.77 dollars.
The price of a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in July, which is the first day of use as a benchmark contract, took 0.14% to 110.40 dollars
Bitcoin rose 0.62% to $30,100.
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