by Laetitia Volga
PARIS (Reuters) – European stock markets ended in the green on Wednesday as the dollar lost ground ahead of decisions by the Federal Reserve, whose investors expect a status quo on interest rates.
In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.52% to 7,328.53 points. Britain’s Footsie gained 0.23% and Germany’s Dax advanced 0.49%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index gained 0.71%, the FTSEurofirst 300 0.44% and the Stoxx 600 0.45%.
At the close in Europe, Wall Street was in disarray, with the Dow Jones down 0.35%, hurt by disappointing forecasts from UnitedHealth (-7.2%), the S&P-500 gaining 0.27% and the Nasdaq 0.33%.
The meeting awaited for several weeks by the financial markets is fast approaching: the monetary policy committee of the American Federal Reserve will deliver its decisions at 6:00 p.m. GMT after two days of debate, before a press conference by the President of the Federal Reserve. institution, Jerome Powell.
After the deceleration in consumer prices and the sharper-than-expected fall in producer prices in May, it seems unlikely in the eyes of a vast majority of observers that the Fed will announce a rate hike in the evening.
But it would then rather be a pause for the Fed in its cycle and not a stop. Indeed, the markets estimate at 60% the probability of an increase of an additional quarter point next month, according to the real-time barometer FedWatch.
VALUES
In values, Casino jumped 21.02%, the largest increase in the SBF 120, the distributor having announced on Wednesday that it had received a proposal from a trio of businessmen made up of Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari for a strengthening of its equity up to an amount of 1.1 billion euros.
Elsewhere in Europe, Logitech fell 12.52%, after the announcement of the surprise resignation of its general manager.
EXCHANGES/RATES
On the foreign exchange market, expectations linked to the Fed disadvantage the dollar, which depreciated by 0.56% against a basket of reference currencies and reached its highest level for a month.
The euro, for its part, returned to 1.0853 dollars.
Yields on Treasuries are down sharply: the ten-year yield dropped nearly seven basis points to 3.7726% and the two-year yield fell to 4.614%.
OIL
Oil prices are trending lower as the Fed’s approach to conclusions takes precedence over the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) and OPEC’s optimistic crude demand forecasts.
Brent lost 0.65% to 73.81 dollars a barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) 0.72% to 68.92 dollars.
TO BE CONTINUED :
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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