by Laetitia Volga
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to be scattered and European stock markets are moving without much change mid-session on Friday, the publication of monthly employment figures in the United States limiting risk-taking.
Futures contracts signal a gain of 0.18% for the Dow Jones, a stable opening for the Standard & Poor’s-500 and a decline of 0.34% for the Nasdaq. In Paris, the CAC 40 gains 0.14% at 5,944.44 around 11:30 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax lost 0.07% and in London, the FTSE gained 0.2%.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.08%, the Eurozone EuroStoxx 50 fell 0.19% and the Stoxx 600 advanced 0.07%.
The monthly report to be published at 12:30 GMT by the Labor Department will, as always, be closely followed in an attempt to determine the impact on the job market of the tightening of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and whether it could be brought to to change direction.
The Reuters consensus expects a slowdown in the creation of non-agricultural jobs to 250,000, an unemployment rate unchanged at 3.7% and an increase of 0.3% over one month in the average hourly wage.
“The labor market report is likely to paint a picture of some slowdown but not enough to fuel any reversal in the rhetoric of US central bankers,” UniCredit analysts said in a note.
Indeed, central bank officials continue to assure us that inflation is their main concern and they remain determined to continue monetary tightening to slow the pace of price increases.
Next Thursday’s release of the US consumer price index could have a bigger bearing on the Fed’s strategy in November, UniCredit added.
Over the week as a whole, the Stoxx 600 is currently showing an increase of just over 3% after three weeks in the red. WALL STREET VALUES TO FOLLOW
In trading before the opening of Wall Street, semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices was down 5% after lowering its third-quarter revenue forecast by about $1 billion.
In its wake, Micron, Qualcomm, Nvidia and Intel lost 1% to 3%; a decline amplified by the publication by Samsung, the world’s number one memory chip, of a drop in its quarterly operating profit greater than expected, according to interim results.
VALUES IN EUROPE
In Europe, therefore, the high-tech sector shows the greatest decline. Its Stoxx index dropped 1.39%. STMicroelectronics (-2.55%) and Capgemini (-1.75%) are last in the CAC 40. Infineon, ASML drop 1.21% and 2.41% respectively.
At the top of the Stoxx 600, Credit Suisse rose 6.76%, the Swiss bank having announced the purchase of up to three billion Swiss francs of debt securities in an attempt to reassure investors.
Supported by the transition to “outperformance” of Oddo, the Renault share takes 4.15%.
RATE
US Treasury yields continue to rise ahead of the jobs report. That of ten-year Treasuries takes more than two basis points to 3.8489%.
On the European bond market, the ten-year German, at 2.157%, gains more than seven basis points, the highest for a week
CHANGES
The dollar, slightly up at the start of the day, is now down 0.19% against a basket of benchmark currencies. It could bounce back, however, if the US jobs numbers “end up surprising on the upside,” said Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades.
The euro took advantage of the slight slack in the note to rise to 0.9795 dollars.
OIL
The oil market is heading for a second straight week of gains, buoyed by the decision by OPEC+ countries to cut production by two million barrels a day in November – the biggest cut since 2020 – despite fears of recession and rising interest rates.
Brent gained 0.88% to 95.25 dollars a barrel and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) 0.98% to 89.32 dollars.
(Written by Laetitia Volga)
Copyright © 2022 Thomson Reuters