by Laetitia Volga
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to rise moderately and European stock markets are in the green mid-session Thursday after new studies suggested Omicron would be less dangerous than previous variants of the coronavirus, easing concerns investors on the economic outlook.
New York index futures signal an opening up 0.35% for the Dow Jones and Standard & Poor’s-500 and 0.25% for the Nasdaq.
The trend could change after the release of a series of indicators including monthly figures for household spending in the United States and a key measure of inflation, at 13:30 GMT. Economists polled by Reuters predict that the PCE consumer price index excluding energy and food rose 4.5% year-on-year in November.
In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.45% to 7,083.52 at 12:13 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax takes 0.67% and in London, the FTSE is up 0.23%.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.59%, the EuroStoxx 50 in the euro zone by 0.77% and the Stoxx 600, which rose to a two-week high, by 0.63%.
Studies in South Africa and the United Kingdom indicated on Wednesday that the risk of hospitalization was lower after contamination with the Omicron variant than with the Delta variant.
The AstraZeneca laboratory reinforced the bullish momentum of the market by announcing that a study on its COVID-19 vaccine showed that a three-dose vaccine regimen was effective against Omicron, findings that join those of its competitors Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna on their own product.
“The Omicron wave will not derail the well-underway economic recovery, it could delay it, but 2022 will benefit from an attractive and healthy economic environment,” said Philip Petursson, head of investment strategy at IG Wealth Management.
“This year, the economies have restarted after the 2020 lockdowns and have benefited from all the fiscal stimulus measures. 2022 will be the year towards the normalization of stock returns, interest rates and economic growth,” he said. he added.
VALUES IN EUROPE
A large majority of European sectors are on the rise, with the transport and leisure sector showing the strongest gains, at 2.55%.
At values, Carmat gained 3.24% after announcing the end of its investigation into the quality problems of some of its artificial heart prostheses which made it possible to identify the necessary changes.
Continental advance 2.87%, among the strongest increases of the Stoxx 600, the chairman of the management board having indicated that the automotive supplier could reach the top of the range of its forecasts of annual margin.
In Amsterdam, the health technology group Philips is awarded 3.67% after announcing the first positive results on a large part of the fans recalled this year for a risk of degradation and toxicity of a foam component.
In the news of mergers and acquisitions, the British betting specialist Flutter, owner of Betfair and Poker Stars, gains 2.83% after announcing the takeover of the Italian games operator Sisal for 1.62 billion pounds (1 , 9 billion euros).
RATES / CHANGES
Faced with the rebound in equities, bond yields rose to 1.4737% for ten-year Treasuries and -0.259% for German Bunds of the same maturity, which rose to their highest in one month.
In the currency market, the dollar index, which measures the movements of the greenback against other benchmark currencies, is stable and the euro is unchanged around 1.132 dollars.
OIL
Prices in the oil market are little changed, torn between restrictions imposed to combat the surge in COVID-19 cases and positive announcements about the Omicron variant.
The barrel of Brent lost 0.32% to 75.53 dollars and that of US light crude 0.26 to 72.95 dollars.
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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