Stock market spotlight on Fed meeting and US tech heavyweight accounts

[ad_1]

Caution and a wait-and-see attitude are shaping up to be the watchwords at the start of the week marked by the meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee, as well as by a wave of corporate publications in Europe and the United States. Not to mention the geopolitical risk. Around 8:30 a.m., the contract future February on the Cac 40 index lost 0.7%.

In New York, big-cap tech took a particularly hard time last week with the Nasdaq Composite down 7.6%, with the index now down more than 14% from its peak in November. sinking a little more in the correction zone. The change of course announced by the US Federal Reserve is no stranger to this development.

The Fed on the front line

The central bank’s monetary policy committee, which meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, should confirm expectations of four hikes in its key rates this year and the end of its asset purchases, with a first hike expected in March, before a reduction in the size of its balance sheet this summer.

Goldman Sachs economists fear that the Federal Reserve will be more aggressive than the big Wall Street banks anticipate. They expect rate hikes in March, June, September and December and a reduction in its balance sheet in July. “We see a risk that the FOMC decides to tighten its policy at each meeting until the perception changes, they write, adding that this reinforces the possibility of a rate hike at every meeting or an earlier-than-expected balance sheet announcement in May “.

The first publications of results were mixed to say the least in the United States, particularly in the banking sector, while Netflix was pessimistic about its subscription forecasts. This week, about a third of the S&P 500 companies are due to publish their quarterly results, and in particular the first two American capitalizations: Apple and Microsoft, not to mention Tesla and several Dow Jones heavyweights such as Boeing, Caterpillar, GE and 3M.

Christel Heydemann at the head of Orange?

The macroeconomic agenda is also loaded with the first estimates of fourth-quarter GDP in Europe and the United States, and the PCE index of US household spending, the measure of inflation most watched by the Fed. But before that, the market will have on Monday a first glimpse of Markit PMI indices of January activity in the private sector in Europe and the United States.

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are also being closely watched. The State Department has called on Americans to leave Ukraine immediately as Moscow is massing more troops on the border between the two countries. Washington has also ordered the families of its embassy staff in Kiev to leave Ukraine.

On the value side, Orange is set to appoint Christel Heydemann as chief executive as part of a governance overhaul, Reuters reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

Renault. The alliance formed by the French manufacturer, Nissan and Mitsubishi will announce on Thursday a plan to invest 20 billion euros in electric vehicles, said Reuters, citing two people familiar with the project.

Wendel. The investment company has announced that it has completed the acquisition of ACAMS, a company specializing in training and certification in the field of the fight against money laundering, on the basis of a valuation of 500 million dollars.

Among analysts’ ratings, Bernstein downgraded EDF from “outperformance” to “in line performance” and reduced its target price from 14.50 to 8.50 euros.


[ad_2]

Source link -91