(Boursier.com) — The Wall Street trend is negative for the time being this Friday, the S&P 500 dropping 0.51% to 3,928 pts and the Dow Jones 0.69% to 31,893 pts, against a drop of 0.50 % on the Nasdaq at 11,728 pts. On the Nymex, a barrel of WTI crude fell 2% to $68.5 with heightened fears of recession. The ounce of gold still grabs 0.1% towards $2,000. The dollar index climbed 0.6% against a basket of benchmark currencies.
The banking sector is suffering on Wall Street in the wake of European markets, while Credit Suisse and UBS would, according to Bloomberg, be among the establishments targeted by an investigation by the United States Department of Justice, to determine whether they potentially helped Russian oligarchs to evade to international sanctions. Deutsche Bank is also particularly battered today, its share price collapsing and its CDS soaring at the same time. The titles of American banks, medium and large, are mainly oriented in the red.
Durable goods orders in the United States for the month of February 2023 were down 1% compared to the previous month, against +1.1% in FactSet consensus and -5% in revised data, for the month of January. Excluding transport, these durable goods orders are stable compared to January, against +0.4% for the revised reading of the previous month and +0.3% consensus.
The preliminary US composite Markit PMI for March 2023 came in at 53.3, down from a FactSet consensus of 49.4 and a level of 50.1 a month earlier. This therefore reflects a significant expansion of activity. The manufacturing index remained in contraction, at 49.3 against 47.2 consensus, but the services index reached 53.8, against 50.3 Factset consensus and 50.6 a month earlier.
In addition, James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Fed, intervenes today, while the American central bank has again raised its rates by a quarter point between 4.75 and 5% the day before yesterday. , continuing its fight against inflation despite the doubts raised by the banking crisis. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the dominant probability for the May 2-3 meeting is that of a monetary status quo for the Fed (92% now against just over 70% early this morning), the hypothesis of a final rate hike of a quarter point, between 5 and 5.25%, being practically ruled out. The FedWatch tool shows a high probability of monetary easing in June or July, which contradicts the recent speech of Fed boss Jerome Powell, still determined to bring US inflation back towards the 2% target.
Elsewhere in the world this morning, Japanese inflation figures for the month of February came in line with expectations, as the local Markit/JMMA manufacturing index indicated a contraction in activity. British retail sales performed better than expected (+1.2% in February against +0.2% consensus, compared to the previous month), while the local CIPS indices showed divergent trends from manufacturing industry (48 in March in preliminary data against 49.7 consensus) and services (52.8 against 53 consensus). In the euro zone, the preliminary composite index exceeded expectations, at 54.1 against 51.9 consensus in March, with the services index (55.6 against 52.5) and despite the weakness of the manufacturing industry (47.1 against 49 consensus). The trend is the same in France and Germany, with surprisingly strong services indices, but depressed manufacturing indicators.
Values
Apple (steady). The operators are attentive to the plans of the Californian group from Cupertino to strengthen its operations in India and reduce its dependence on China. The Reuters agency understands today, citing sources, that the Taiwanese supplier of the apple group, Pegatron, is in discussions to open a second factory in India. The agency cites two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The new factory would be dedicated, according to a source, to the assembly of the latest iPhones.
In another register, Apple would approach film studios for partnerships on film releases. Bloomberg thus reports that the Californian group would intend to spend a billion dollars a year on films, which would be released in theaters. The agency cites people familiar with the plans. It would be an ambitious effort by Apple to increase its visibility in Hollywood and attract subscribers to its streaming service.
Manchester United (-1%). As the battle rages between Jim Ratcliffe and the group led by Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, another investor has joined in. Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus has indeed indicated that he has submitted a takeover offer and is ready to pay a premium to get his hands on the famous club in the north of England, the former Nokia executive told Reuters. “We are ready and plan to go higher than this 3.9 billion dollars”, affirmed the leader, in reference to the current market capitalization of ManU.
T. Zilliacus said he hoped the Glazer family would “go down in history as the vendors who made it possible for Manchester United fans to own the club”. As part of his candidacy, the Scandinavian plans to invite club fans around the world to become co-owners and make sporting decisions for the team: “I want the fans to feel that they have a say in say in all key sporting decisions at the club.
block (-3%) struggles to recover from attacks as Jack Dorsey’s payments services group is targeted by short sellers at Hindenburg Research. Hindenburg, as usual, is not satisfied with its short position and attaches a rather damning report, at least if it turns out to be correct. Thus, the firm accuses Block of overestimating its user figures and, on the contrary, of underestimating its customer acquisition costs. Hindenburg explains that his investigation, which would have lasted two years, concluded that Block had “systematically taken advantage of the categories he claimed to help”. Hindenburg also cites former Block employees as saying that 40-75% of the accounts they investigated were fake, involved in fraud, or simply additional accounts linked to a unique individual.
JP Morgan Chase (-2%), Bank of America (-1%), Wells Fargo (-2%), Citigroup (-3%), U.S. Bancorp (-1%), Goldman Sachs (-2%) or Morgan Stanley (-4%), are all in the red this Friday in the sector trend. Among the most closely watched regional banks, First Republic, Western Alliance, PacWest Or Comerica also remain under pressure. Although Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell delivered supposedly reassuring messages for depositors, the markets remained on the defensive after the falls of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and then Credit Suisse, after being briefly comforted by the exceptional measures taken by the Fed, the FDIC and the US Treasury.