by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to fall slightly on Thursday at the opening and the European stock markets are moving in the green at the halfway point in a session where investors are digesting a new burst of contrasting company results.
New York index futures signal Wall Street opening down 0.02% for the Dow Jones, 0.16% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.17% for the Nasdaq. The day before, the S&P 500 set a session record at 4,999.89 points, very close to the symbolic bar of 5,000 points, while the Nasdaq only needs an increase of 2.8% to exceed its level. history of November 2021.
In Paris, around 12:50 GMT, the CAC 40, driven by luxury, advanced 0.72% to 7,665.73 points, less than fifty points from its historic peak, reached on January 31 at 7,702.95 points. . In Frankfurt, the Dax gained 0.39%, also very close to its absolute record of 17,049.52 points, reached on February 6. In London, the FTSE gained 0.02%, its gains being limited by the health sector, notably with AstraZeneca (-5.98%), whose profit was lower than expectations in the fourth quarter.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.23% and the EuroStoxx 50 of the euro zone 0.68%. The Stoxx 600, which reached an unprecedented high of 487.66 points on February 2, advanced 0.18%, to 486.51 points, approaching a new high.
The indices in Europe being close to their record levels, technical resistance logically limits significant gains which are fueled in today’s session by values linked to consumption such as Unilever (+2.73%), which reported an increase in its sales in the fourth quarter. The personal and household goods compartment on the Stoxx 600 gained 1.49%.
VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
Walt Disney gains 6.1% in pre-market trading after its board of directors approved a three billion dollar share buyback program for the 2024 fiscal year.
ARM soars 22.4% in pre-market trading after the group published revenue and profit forecasts for the whole year that were higher than expected, against a backdrop of booming intelligence artificial (AI).
PayPal, on the other hand, fell by almost 9% in pre-market trading, with the digital payments specialist anticipating stability in its adjusted profit for this year.
VALUES IN EUROPE
In Paris, Publicis (+0.66%), Société Générale (+0.31%) and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (+6.48%) are in the green after their respective results and forecasts, while Crédit Agricole ( -5.0538%) and Vinci (-0.28%), are sanctioned after theirs.
The European luxury compartment (+1.51%) is also doing well with Kering gaining 4.62% despite a decline in its sales in the fourth quarter. LVMH advances by 1.77% and Hermès by 2.06%.
Elsewhere in Europe, Siemens, which did better than expected in its first fiscal quarter, gained 1.77%, while Maersk plunged 16.83%, the group having warned that the saturation of the supply of container ships would affect its profit more than expected this year. Its competitor Hapag Lloyd’s fell by 10.72%.
Adyen soars 21.98% in Amsterdam, the payment group having reported 2023 operating profit above expectations and a drop in its costs, which also benefits its competitor Worldline, up 1.41%.
RATE
Bond yields in the euro zone are rising with the German ten gaining almost four basis points, to 2.333% while the markets are revising downwards their hypothesis of a reduction in rates from the European Central Bank (ECB) this year to 120 basis points against 130 on Wednesday due to the call for caution from several central bankers
The yield on ten-year US Treasuries also rose by about four basis points, to 4.1385%.
CHANGES
The dollar strengthened by 0.29% against a basket of reference currencies, as traders digested the comments of Fed officials who suggest that rates will remain at their current levels for longer than expected.
The euro fell by 0.19%, to $1.075, while the pound sterling stood at $1.2589 (-0.29%).
OIL
The oil market is trending upwards after Israel’s rejection of Hamas’ ceasefire proposal: Brent rose 1.07% to $80.06 per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) by 1.04% to $74.63.
(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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