After its record the day before and a close in dispersed order on Wall Street, the Paris Stock Exchange should take a break. The acceleration of Omicron variant contaminations remains at the center of attention, and in particular its impact on the economic recovery. Trading volumes are expected to remain low as the end of the year approaches, but reopening the London Stock Exchange after a four-day weekend should give trading some traction.
In New York, the S&P 500 just missed a 70e record closing this year after having hit a new peak in session, thus interrupting a series of four consecutive sessions of increase. The Nasdaq Composite also folded, while the Dow Jones nabbed a few points. The American market is wondering about the consequences of disruptions in air transport due to the Omicron variant, but for now, the new wave promises to be less dangerous than feared and the probability of confinements at the global level is considered low.
Towards profit taking after the “Santa Rally”?
Asian markets are broadly down this morning, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 ending 0.6% decline, while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s Hang Seng and Chinese CSI 300 were down more than 1% as the market approaches. fence. Volatility is a classic phenomenon at this slack period of the year, especially as the Beijing authorities are stepping up their monitoring of Chinese companies’ listings on foreign stock exchanges.
Investors are tempted to take profits after a 17% gain in global financial centers. The pandemic, the Fed’s tightening of monetary policy and the outlook for the Chinese economy are among the main risks for 2022, although fears about the Omicron variant appear to be easing due to less danger compared to previous strains, according to recent studies.
American acquisition for Teleperformance
On the macroeconomic front, the market will watch the figures for US foreign trade and promises of November home sales in the United States, not to mention weekly oil stocks. These fell 3.1 million barrels last week, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) trade association.
Teleperformance announced the acquisition of Senture, specializing in outsourced management of business processes to administrations in the United States, for an enterprise value of $ 400 million (€ 353.5 million). The operation will be entirely financed by bank debt.