by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to fall on Monday and European stock markets are also in the red at mid-term in a consolidation movement in the absence of a macroeconomic catalyst for the day’s session.
Defense values, however, limit the potential decline in a context of geopolitical tensions two days after the attack on a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow, while Russia tries to incriminate Ukraine in this attack. New York index futures signal Wall Street opening down 0.15% for the Dow Jones, 0.34% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.60% for the Nasdaq after a Friday session where the S&P 500 posted its largest weekly gain so far this year.
In Paris, the CAC 40 fell by 0.49% to 8,112.27 points around 12:10 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax lost 0.01% and in London, the FTSE declined by 0.46%.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell by 0.30%, the eurozone’s EuroStoxx 50 by 0.31% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.38%. After Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, however, raised its forecast for the evolution of the Stoxx 600 on Monday, estimating that the index should further climb by around 6% to 540 points, by the end of 2024.
Most indices in Europe hit record levels last week in the hope of a reduction in key rates in the coming months in reaction to announcements from several central banks, including those of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Bank of England (BoE).
Speaking at an event in Rome, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta reaffirmed on Monday that the European Central Bank (ECB) is moving towards lowering rates as inflation falls rapidly to get closer to the 2% objective. Philip Lane, the ECB’s chief economist, for his part indicated in a podcast broadcast on Monday that the Frankfurt institution was increasingly convinced that wage growth was slowing towards more normal levels, which could open the door to monetary easing.
Investors expect the Fed, ECB and BoE to lower the cost of credit by around 75 basis points in total by the end of the year.
For today’s session, no major indicator is on the agenda, which gives rise to a wait-and-see attitude, or even profit-taking, while inflation figures in several European countries will be published during the week. and in the United States. VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
Boeing gains 2.5% in pre-market trading after announcing the departure of its general manager Dave Calhoun, scheduled for the end of the year.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell more than 2% in pre-market trading as China plans to gradually ban government computers and servers from using chips from American manufacturers, according to the Financial Times.
VALUES IN EUROPE
In Paris, Thales leads the CAC 40 with a gain of 1.84%, while elsewhere in Europe, the Swedish group Saab, the Italian Leonardo and the German Rheinmetall advance respectively by 1.97%, 2. 77% and 2.76% against a backdrop of worsening geopolitical tensions. In corporate news, Dassault Aviation (+4.92%) is supported by BNP Paribas’ recommendation to “buy”.
Carmat rose 4.02% following the announcement of an agreement between the artificial heart manufacturer and its creditors.
The music label Believe, which asked Warner to submit a binding purchase offer by April 7, takes 5.94%.
In London, Direct Line plunged 12.56%, the Belgian insurer Ageas (+1.91%) having declared that it did not intend to submit a new offer to the British group, which rejected two of its proposals.
In Stockholm, the SBB real estate group jumped 9.67% in reaction to the announcement of a repurchase of its debt with a 60% discount.
CHANGES
The dollar fell 0.17% against a basket of reference currencies after a gain of almost 1% last week. The threat of monetary intervention from the Japanese authorities and the rise in the Chinese yuan, driven by the government in Beijing, are weighing on the American currency.
The euro, which fell last week to a nearly three-week low, rebounded by 0.21%, to $1.0828.
The pound sterling is trading at $1.2638 (+0.29%) after losing more than 1% last week.
RATE
The ten-year German Bund yield rebounded 3.5 basis points to 2.364% after hitting a one-week low on Friday.
That of American Treasury bonds of the same maturity takes more than two points, to 4.2395%.
OIL
The oil market benefits from geopolitical risk in Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East: Brent advances by 0.40% to 85.77 dollars per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) by 0.43% at $80.98.
The two oil benchmarks gained, at Friday’s close, respectively 11% and around 12.5% since the start of the year.
(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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