by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to rise on Thursday and European stocks are also trading in the green mid-session, with stocks buoyed by signs of slowing inflation amid hopes of a pause in inflation. the rise in interest rates, the continued ebb of fears about the banks and the solid results of H&M.
Futures on New York indices signal an opening on Wall Street up 0.59% for the Dow Jones, 0.6% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.56% for the Nasdaq.
In Paris, the CAC 40 advanced by 1.34% to 7,283.58 around 11:30 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax gained 1.32% and in London, the FTSE rose by 0.97%.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index takes 1.08%, the EuroStoxx 50 of the euro zone 1.43% and the Stoxx 600 1.13%.
Preliminary data from six German states on Thursday show that inflation is expected to have slowed significantly in Germany in March as nationwide figures will be released at 12:00 GMT.
In Spain, inflation slowed more sharply than expected in March to fall back to its lowest level since August 2021, at 3.3% over one year. Harmonized with European standards, it stood at 3.1% over one year.
“Spanish inflation is really good news and seems to have given the markets another reason to rally,” said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG.
Inflation figures for the whole of the euro zone are due on Friday.
In the United States, the PCE price index, the preferred measure of inflation by the United States Federal Reserve (Fed), will provide at 12:30 GMT the outlook on the evolution of interest rates, while the final GDP figures in the last quarter of 2022 will confirm whether or not the scenario of a possible soft landing for the American economy.
In the meantime, traders are banking on a pause in the Fed’s rate hike in May and a possible cut in the cost of credit soon after, which benefits the tech compartment, with the Nasdaq on track to gain nearly 14%. over the quarter.
Two Fed officials, Susan Collins and Neel Kashkari, are also due to speak during the day and investors hope to find clues in their remarks on monetary policy after the storm in the banking sector which has since returned to a precarious calm since Monday. .
WALL STREET VALUES TO FOLLOW
Microsoft, Tesla and Amazon are still up, from 0.2% to 0.6% in pre-market trading, after the sharp rise in technology stocks the day before in the wake of forecasts from Micron Technology.
VALUES IN EUROPE
The real estate (+2.82%) and new technologies (+1.91%) compartments, sensitive to interest rates, are among the strongest increases on the Stoxx 600. Distribution (+3.43 %), in the lead, is driven in particular by H&M (+18.72%), the Swedish clothing giant having reported Thursday a surprise operating profit for the December-February period while analysts were anticipating a loss net.
Elsewhere in Europe, Philips jumped 6.05% on hopes of an agreement this year on its breathing devices which were the subject of a massive recall, while the British electrician SSE (+ 3.19% ) benefits from the increase in its annual profit forecast.
RATE
The relaxation on long bond yields continues with the first inflation figures in Germany and Spain: the ten-year German Bund yield appears at 2.315%.
In the United States, that of ten-year US Treasury bonds fell around one basis point to 3.5563%.
CHANGES
Risk appetite is weighing on the dollar, which fell 0.24% against a basket of benchmark currencies.
The euro is trading at 1.0873 dollars (+0.28%).
OIL
Oil prices are heading for a fourth consecutive session of increases, still supported by fears over supplies in Iraq and the unexpected drop in crude inventories in the United States last week, which fell to a two-year low.
Brent rose 0.72% to 78.84 dollars a barrel and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) 0.82% to 73.57 dollars.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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