by Augustin Turpin
(Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to fall and European stock markets are hesitant at mid-session on Thursday, with investors playing cautiously ahead of the announcement of monetary policy decisions by the European Central Bank, with the latest US inflation figures having limited the prospects of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. New York index futures signal Wall Street opening down 0.29% for the Dow Jones, 0.31% for the Standard & Poor’s-500 and 0.24% for the Nasdaq. In Paris, the CAC 40 fell 0.13% to 8,035.21. around 10:35 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax lost 0.57% and in London, the FTSE 0.26%.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.36%, the Eurozone EuroStoxx 50 0.56% and the Stoxx 600 0.4%.
The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Wednesday after the announcement of higher-than-expected inflation in March, leading to a jump in US bond yields, as markets reversed their expectations of a drop in bond rates. Fed from June.
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Furthermore, the “minutes” of the Fed’s last monetary policy meeting last month demonstrated doubts among officials of the American central bank regarding the dynamics of disinflation in the United States.
UBS Global Wealth Management now expects the Fed to begin cutting interest rates in September, up from previously forecasting cuts in June.
According to the CME’s FedWatch tool, traders currently estimate a 41% chance of a first interest rate cut in July.
Focus now shifts to US producer prices for March, due later today, as well as unemployment figures, which will help markets gauge the strength of the world’s largest economy. world.
The opening of the results season on Friday in the United States will also liven up trading at the end of the week. VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
The US Department of Justice on Wednesday accused Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of manipulating the pricing process for Eylea, its high-cost macular degeneration drug.
VALUES IN EUROPE
Société Générale takes 1.37% after announcing the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the BPCE group with a view to the sale of its subsidiary SGEF (Société Générale Equipment Finance) for an amount of 1.1 billion euros.
AstraZeneca rose 1.9%, among the best performers on Britain’s FTSE 100 after the drugmaker said it planned to increase its annual dividend by 7% for 2024.
On the downside, Volvo fell 3.7% after Citigroup lowered its recommendation from “buy” to “neutral.”
RATE
The yield on the two-year German Bund rose to its highest level since late November on Thursday, driven by stronger-than-expected US inflation data and rose 2.6 basis points (bps) to 2.984%. The ten-year one also gained 2.6 bps to 2.455%.
US bond markets are falling, with the ten-year Treasury losing 1bp to 4.5498%, and the two-year Treasury losing 0.6bp to 4.963%.
CHANGES
The dollar is stable (0.04%) against a basket of reference currencies, while the euro loses 0.12% to 1.0729 dollars.
OIL
Oil prices are catching their breath and falling after recording an increase of one dollar per barrel on Wednesday, driven by rising tensions in the Middle East between Israel and Iran, OPEC’s third oil producer.
Brent dropped 0.45% to $90.07 per barrel, with American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) losing 0.56% to $85.73.
(Written by Augustin Turpin)
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