Stocks fall, rate hike still weighs | Photo credit: Shutterstock
PARIS, June 7 (Reuters) – The main European stock markets fell at the start of the session on Tuesday, the rise in bond yields encouraging investors to be cautious before the major economic and monetary events of the coming days. In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.62% to 6,507.99 points at 07:40 GMT and in Frankfurt, the Dax dropped 0.79%. The EuroStoxx 50 index is down 0.69%, the FTSEurofirst 300 0.46% and the Stoxx 600 0.51%. The decline is more limited on the London Stock Exchange thanks to the fall in the pound sterling, a consequence of the vote of confidence much tighter than anticipated by British Conservative MPs for the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson: the FTSE 100 yields only 0, 09%. The yield on ten-year U.S. Treasuries is holding above 3%, a level it crossed on Monday for the first time in nearly a month. The Australian central bank also raised its main interest rate by half a point, a stronger rise than expected, and warned that it should continue to tighten its monetary policy in the coming months to curb inflation. This context is all the more unfavorable for equities as investors await with some anxiety the meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday and that of the American Federal Reserve next week, as well as the publication of monthly price figures for consumption in the United States on Friday. In Europe, the main economic indicator of the day is also disappointing since orders for German industry fell 2.7% in April, their third consecutive decline. On the equity side, the most marked declines are for technology stocks, which are still sensitive to rising interest rates and whose Stoxx index lost 1.02%. In Paris, Dassault Systèmes lost 2.1%, the biggest drop in the CAC 40, after the lowering of Jefferies’ recommendation to “underperformance”. The American bank explains that it doubts the ability of the software publisher to meet its objectives in the “cloud” without resorting to external growth operations. More spectacular, the fall of 12.34% of the Scandinavian airline company SAS after the refusal of the Swedish Minister of Transport to provide it with fresh capital. (Writing by Marc Angrand, editing by Kate Entringer)