by Laetitia Volga
PARIS (Reuters) – European stocks ended higher on Friday after a turbulent week for risky assets amid concerns about inflation and the global economy.
In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 2.52% to 6,362.68 points. Britain’s Footsie gained 2.55% and Germany’s Dax advanced 2.1%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index ended up 2.49%, the FTSEurofirst 300 2% and the Stoxx 600 2.14%.
The latter posted a weekly gain of 0.83%, allowing it to interrupt a cycle of four consecutive weeks of decline. The CAC 40 gained 1.67% over the week.
The equity markets have experienced significant variations this week, investors fearing a sharp slowdown in the global economy with the tightening of monetary policies of central banks, that of the United States in the lead, in the face of high prices.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Thursday evening that the fight against inflation will not be painless while reaffirming that he anticipates rate hikes of half a percentage point for the time being. at the next two meetings of the institution.
These statements seem to have contributed to the rise in equities, as well as encouraging signals on the health crisis in China.
But BofA analysts warn that while markets could benefit from a short-term rebound, they could subsequently resume the downward move that has seen the US Nasdaq 100 index fall more than 25% since the start of the month. ‘year.
“The week was extremely volatile, tossed between fears about inflation and then about growth. It’s a showdown between these two dynamics,” summed up Kim Rupert, at Action Economics.
For the moment, the main indexes on Wall Street gained from 1.37% to 3.59%.
VALUES
The sector compartments are all in the green in Europe, from the Stoxx telecoms index (+1.07%) to that of transport and leisure (+4.83%).
At the top of the CAC 40 index, Veolia, Renault and STMicroelectronics gained from 3.75% to 5.99%.
Casino took 9.85% in response to information from Les Echos on the presumed interest of Engie and TotalEnergies for the distributor’s GreenYellow renewable energy subsidiary.
EXCHANGES/RATES
On the foreign exchange market, the “dollar index”, which measures the evolution of the greenback against a reference basket, yields 0.31% but is heading for a sixth week of gains.
The euro climbed back to over $1.04, the day after a low since January 2017 at 1.0352.
Bitcoin rallied 5.09% after falling the previous day to its lowest level in 16 months. Sovereign bond yields are rising after the sharp decline of the past few days. That of ten-year Treasuries gained nearly nine basis points to 2.904% and its German equivalent ended at 0.95%.
OIL
The oil market is up sharply but recovering only a small part of the ground lost in previous sessions and it is heading towards a negative weekly performance after two weeks of progress, a sign that fears for global demand still prevail on the risk linked to the sanctions against Russia.
Brent gained 3.09% to 110.77 dollars a barrel and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) 3.51% to 109.86 dollars.
THE INDICATORS OF THE DAY
With inflation concerns, US household sentiment fell more than expected in May to 59.1, according to preliminary results from the University of Michigan survey.
(Written by Laetitia Volga, edited by Sophie Louet)
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