The Paris Bourse started this week in the red, weighed down by fears about the spread of the Omicron variant and its potential consequences on economic growth. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of cases doubled in just 1.5 to 3 days in infected areas.
In the middle of the afternoon, the Cac 40 dropped 1.19%, to 6,844.39 points, in a volume of 2.1 billion euros. It fell nearly 2.6% at the low of the morning, before recovering slightly, when the Moderna laboratory announced that the injection of a third dose of its vaccine increased resistance to the Omicron variant by 37. .
Among the rare increases in the flagship index, the world number one in bioanalysis Eurofins Scientific gains 2.6%.
Omicron ” unleashed ” worldwide
This Sunday, the Netherlands reintroduced strict containment until mid-January while France decided to curb outdoor festivities in the Christmas-New Year period. There will be no fireworks for the end of December in Paris. Italy, she could impose the wearing of the mask outside and would consider a shortening of the validity of vaccine passports.
The first travel restrictions were also announced at the end of last week. In Europe, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Greece now require Europeans, even vaccinated, to present a negative test on their arrival. Germany will for its part impose a period of quarantine on unvaccinated travelers from France and Denmark. German authorities announced on Saturday evening that they had classified the United Kingdom as a “high risk” country.
In the United States, Anthony Fauci has said further containment is unlikely but the White House special advisor on the pandemic sees the hospital system under pressure. Omicron ” unleashed Around the world, he said over the weekend. It has already been identified in more than 80 countries and could become dominant in Europe by mid-January, according to the European Commission. In the United States, Omicron has been detected in 43 of the 50 states.
Sharp drop in New York
What to raise uncertainties about growth. Goldman Sachs has downgraded its growth expectations for 2022 for the United States after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin announced he will not support the $ 1.750 billion social spending bill. Joe Biden. It is notably revised from 3% to 2% for the first three months of the next year. In reaction to these concerns about the stimulus plan, the Dow Jones lost 1.6% at the opening, the Nasdaq Composite 1.2%.
Among other values, BNP Paribas will sell to the Bank of Montreal its subsidiary Bank of the West, which operates its commercial banking activities in the United States, for an amount of 16.3 billion dollars (approximately 14.5 billion euros). The action manages to gain 0.6%, the price of the transaction being considered higher than expectations.
Ipsen drops 7%
Klépierre (-1.1%) he sold two assets in France and Germany for a total amount of 345 million euros. The other large commercial real estate company, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, has sold a complex in Stockholm to the Alecta fund for a little over 270 million.
Icade (-1.6%), for its part, bought three retirement homes in Orpea for 57 million euros.
At the SRD, Ipsen 7.6% fall after the green light from the American health authority for the marketing by the Indian laboratory Cipla of its lanreotide treatment, a generic of Somatuline, the French group’s flagship product.
At the Cac 40, the biggest drop came to Worldline (-6%), while tech had held up better than the other components of the index at the end of last week.