by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – European stocks ended lower on Monday and Wall Street fell mid-session as investors moved away from risky assets amid uncertainty in China after violent protests over the weekend against the policy ” zero-COVID” from Beijing, which is pushing back raw materials and oil in fear of a drop in demand.
In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 0.7% at 6,665.2 points. The British Footsie lost 0.17% and the German Dax lost 1.09%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index fell by 0.68%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.54% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.65%.
Protests against restrictions imposed on the Chinese population amid the fight against COVID-19, which sparked an unprecedented wave of disobedience in China over the weekend, spread to at least a dozen people on Monday. cities around the world, including Paris and London. At the same time, the Chinese authorities reported 40,052 new contaminations with the SARS-CoV-2 virus on Monday, a new record after 39,506 the day before.
“Record cases (of infections) in several (Chinese) cities are testing politics and the unrest underscores the immensity of the challenge facing President Xi Jinping. The combination of these elements creates enormous uncertainty,” he said. commented Craig Erlam, analyst at OANDA.
Other analysts, like Brian Klimke of Cetera Financial Group, fear a long-term impact on production, supply chains and demand.
A sign of the market’s nervousness, the index measuring Wall Street’s volatility, which had fallen sharply last week on the back of renewed optimism about the pace of the rise in interest rates, started to rise again. increase of 6.4% to 21.82 points in the United States, while its European equivalent ended on a gain of 8% to 21.52 points.
AT WALL STREET
At the time of the close in Europe, the Dow Jones retreated by 0.75%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 by 0.81% and the Nasdaq by 0.71%.
Apple lost 1.98% as Bloomberg reported that disruptions in China could cut iPhone Pro production by nearly six million units.
Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Walmart, which are advancing from 0.38% to 1.87%, however offer some support to the indices, Adobe Analytics having declared that it expects a record number of online sales for this “Cyber Monday”. of 11.2 billion dollars, an increase of 5.2% over one year.
VALUES IN EUROPE
In Europe, the Chinese context obliges, the compartment of basic resources (-0.85%) and that of energy (-1.36%) logically declined with TotalEnergies (-1.20%), Shell (-0 .28%) or even BP (-0.98%).
The Anglo American mining groups (-0.95%), Rio Tinto (-0.3%), Eramet (-0.79%) and ArcelorMittal (-1.33%) were also neglected.
In business news Airbus fell -5.68%, possible delays in deliveries being mentioned, while Casino lost 0.45% after the announcement of the sale of part of the capital of the Brazilian Assaí.
The Swiss bank in difficulty Credit Suisse (-3.57%), it plunged to a historic low at 2.97 francs, in fear of an exodus of customers in its domestic market.
THE INDICATORS OF THE DAY
Eurozone corporate loan growth remained flat in October despite rising interest rates and recession fears.
CHANGES
The dollar, the safe haven asset par excellence, appreciated by 0.26% against a basket of benchmark currencies, while the Chinese yuan weakened to 7.229 per dollar.
The euro fell 0.1% to 1.0385 dollars after statements by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, before the European Parliament, stressing that all options remain open on the trajectory of interest rates but evoking a risk that the peak of inflation will be higher than the level currently expected.
RATE
Bond yields in Europe, volatile in the session, ended slightly higher as the market assesses the impact of the protest movement in China, in particular its effect on the supply chain which could fuel inflation.
The ten-year German Bund yield rose around two basis points to 1.99%, while in the United States that of Treasuries of the same maturity was practically stable at 3.69%.
OIL
Oil erased virtually all of its gains for the year due to Chinese demand concerns.
Brent, which fell in session to its lowest since January 4 at 80.61 dollars, yielded 0.33% to 83.35 dollars a barrel at the time of the close of trading in Europe.
US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI), after hitting its lowest level since December 22, 2021 at $73.60, dropped 0.72% to 76.83 at the same time.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Marc Angrand)
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