by Laetitia Volga
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to rise moderately on Monday after an extended Christmas weekend and European stock markets rise slightly at mid-session although fears over the Omicron variant are limiting gains.
New York index futures signal an opening up 0.1% for the Dow Jones, 0.2% for the Standard & Poor’s-500 and 0.25% for the Nasdaq.
In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.14% to 7,096.48 at 12:14 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax takes 0.15%. The London Stock Exchange is closed, like those in Hong Kong and Sydney.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index is up 0.24%, the EuroStoxx 50 in the euro zone by 0.17% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.32%.
It is evolving to its highest in more than a month, still supported by studies suggesting a lower virulence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus than its predecessors. Nevertheless, the high transmissibility of the variant remains of concern.
China on Saturday recorded its highest number of new daily locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in 21 months. Airlines canceled more than 4,500 flights globally over the Christmas weekend.
In France, the government is expected to announce at the end of the day new measures following a Health Defense Council when more than 100,000 contaminations by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were recorded on Saturday, a first since the start of the pandemic.
“Most countries may prefer not to tighten the restrictions further this week so as not to spoil the holidays but that could be the case in early 2022,” said Charalambos Pissouros, head of research at JFD Group.
“With that in mind, and as central banks no longer have the luxury of stepping up their stimulus measures due to overheating inflation, we cannot rule out a decline after the start of the year.” , he added.
VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
On Wall Street, shares related to the travel sector retreated to the pre-stock market after American airlines canceled numerous flights on Sunday for a third consecutive day.
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are losing 1.5% to 2.8% in pre-opening trade.
Cruise operators Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Royal Caribbean and Carnival drop between 2% and 2.8% on the pre-market.
VALUES IN EUROPE
In Europe, the energy sector (-0.23%) shows the largest drop at midday due to the drop in crude prices and that of health care (+ 0.94%) at the end of the day. The reverse is progressing the most.
Roche takes 1.3% after the Swiss drug regulatory authority approved Ronapreve, an antibody treatment for COVID-19 developed with Regeneron, and the US health authority gave the green light for emergency authorization of his COVID-19 self-test.
CNH Industrial gained 2% and reached a historic peak, prolonging its progression after obtaining the agreement of the shareholders on Thursday for the split of the Iveco Group truck business.
CHANGES / RATES
In the foreign exchange market, the dollar advances 0.21% against a basket of other major currencies and the euro is trading around $ 1.13.
On the bond side, the yield on ten-year Treasuries was stable at 1.4944% and its German equivalent gained 1.5 basis points, to -0.234%, the highest in one month.
OIL
US crude loses more than 1%, penalized by wave of flight cancellations in the US, while Brent tries to balance in hopes of limited impact of the Omicron variant on demand global.
The barrel of US light crude (WTI) lost 1.4% to 72.76 dollars and that of Brent 0.13% to 76.04 dollars.
NO MAJOR ECONOMIC INDICATOR ON THE AGENDA OF DECEMBER 27
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)