by Diana Mandia
(Reuters) – European stock markets ended in mixed order on Tuesday in a still volatile environment with uncertainties about inflation, after the recent rise in oil prices, and fears of recession revived by several American indicators.
In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 0.01% at 7,344.96 points. Britain’s Footsie lost 0.5% and Germany’s Dax gained 0.14%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index ended with a gain of 0.1%, but the FTSEurofirst 300 and the Stoxx 600 lost 0.08%.
At the time of the close in Europe, the Dow Jones lost 0.68%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 0.57% and the Nasdaq 0.47%.
Highly anticipated, Tuesday’s publication of the Labor Department’s “Jolts” survey of job vacancies dragged the already hesitant New York Stock Exchange into the red and weighed on European indices.
Job openings fell more than expected in February, to their lowest level in almost two years, suggesting that the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) rate hike policy is starting to have its effects on the market. labor but also that it could lead to an increased risk of recession.
“Jobs are becoming scarce, which means that sooner or later we will see a sharp inversion in the employment curve,” says Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
“Even though some recent figures suggest the economy may escape it, a global recession is still on the cards,” he added.
Another indicator published in the United States, industrial orders fell by 0.7% in February while the consensus gave them down 0.5%.
In Europe, producer prices in the euro zone fell by 0.5% month on month in February.
A survey by the European Central Bank (ECB), however, reported heightened optimism among consumers in countries sharing the euro about the outlook for inflation, economic growth and unemployment in the currency bloc.
VALUES
On the stock market, the European real estate compartment and that of financial services (+0.5%) recorded the best sector performance of the day, while the oil and gas sector (-1.41%) suffered. of profit-taking after the previous day’s jump.
Credit Suisse, which brought together angry shareholders on Tuesday for the bank’s last general meeting, ended with a gain of 0.85%.
In other corporate news, L’Oreal gained 1.18% after buying Aesop from Brazil’s Natura for $2.52 billion.
CHANGES
The euro rose 0.5% against the dollar, to 1.0953, as the greenback continued to suffer from the prospect of an imminent end to the Fed’s monetary tightening cycle.
The dollar index, measuring the fluctuations of the American currency against a basket of reference currencies, thus lost 0.51%.
RATE
Short-term bond yields fell as the “Jolts” survey suggested a cooling in the US labor market that could prompt the Fed to ease monetary policy.
The yield on the two-year German Bund fell two basis points to 2.633%, while its US equivalent fell 12 basis points to 3.863%.
The ten-year U.S. Treasury yield is trading at 3.3405%, down nine basis points.
OIL
Oil prices are on a downward trend after jumping more than 6% the day before with the announcements of OPEC +, the economic data published today in the United States and China having raised fears of a drop in demand.
Brent thus fell by 0.94% to 84.34 dollars a barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) by 0.51% to 80.01 dollars.
(Edited by Laetitia Volga)
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