by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – Wall Street is expected to be slightly in the green on Wednesday at the opening and the European stock markets, apart from London, are also up at mid-session, in weak trading in the absence of major catalysts while many of investors are already on vacation for the Easter holidays.
Futures on New York indices signal an opening on Wall Street up 0.40% for the Dow Jones, 0.37% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.41% for the Nasdaq the day after a session in the red.
The three American indices are heading towards a quarterly gain, driven by the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and the prospect of a rate cut by the American Federal Reserve (Fed) from June.
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Fed officials, including Christopher Waller, are due to speak today.
In Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.28% to 8,207.55 points around 12:05 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax, which advanced 0.51%, reached a new unprecedented high at 18,478.11 points. In London, the FTSE fell by 0.25%, penalized by the European energy compartment (-0.82%) and the decline of Shell (-1.36%) and BP (-1.55%).
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.07%. The EuroStoxx 50 of the euro zone (+0.48%) and the Stoxx 600 (+0.12%) reached a new historic peak during the session at 5,086.56 and 511.69 points respectively.
The Stoxx 600 is heading towards a second consecutive quarter in the green with at this stage a gain of 6.7% since the start of the year.
The day’s mixed economic statistics did not penalize indices in Europe close to their record level while investors are mainly awaiting the monthly PCE price indicator in the United States, which will be published on Friday when most markets will be closed for Easter weekend.
Pending the publication next week of inflation figures for the entire euro zone, the price index in Spain, harmonized with European standards, has started to rise again, to 3.2% over one year in March, after 2.9% in February, according to preliminary data from the INE.
A sign of the absence of concern, on the bond market, the yield on the ten-year German Bund, the benchmark for the euro zone, continues to relax, as does that of the same maturity in Spain.
The revision of Germany’s growth forecast to 0.1% for this year by the country’s leading economic institutes also does not affect the trend.
Economic sentiment in the euro zone, however, improved in March, according to data published by the European Commission, which shows an index at 96.3 compared to 95.5 in February.
VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
Mega-caps like Tesla and Nvidia are expected to rise more than 1% at the opening, while Merck & Co is expected to climb 4.5% on the back of the approval in the United States of its Winrevair treatment for adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
VALUES IN EUROPE
In Paris, Casino’s listing is suspended on Wednesday while the distributor’s board of directors is due to meet during the day to examine the completion of its financial restructuring.
The Swedish fashion group H&M, which reported quarterly profit above expectations on Wednesday, jumped 13.03%, taking the lead in the Stoxx 600 and allowing the European distribution compartment to gain 1.93% .
The British packaging specialist DS Smith climbs 8.28% following discussions with International Paper with a view to a purchase offer of 5.72 billion pounds.
UBS is in the red (-0.25%) after announcing an $8 billion sale of securitized products from Credit Suisse to Apollo.
RATE The ten-year German Bund yield fell almost four basis points, to 2.299%, despite the resurgence of inflation in Spain, which does not worry the markets.
“We believe that (inflation in Spain) is likely to increase further over the coming months due to base price effects on energy, higher VAT on energy and food, as well as rising prices for service companies,” explains Adrian Prettejohn, Europe economist at Capital Economics.
ECB rate futures show a fall in the cost of credit by June and a reduction of 92 basis points before the end of the year.
In the United States, the yield on ten-year Treasuries is stable, at 4.2198%.
CHANGES
The yen fell to 151.97 per dollar on Wednesday, its lowest level since 1990, leading Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki to warn that his country would take “firm measures” against excessive exchange rate movements.
The dollar advanced 0.10% on Wednesday against a basket of reference currencies, including the euro which stood at 1.0816 dollars (-0.13%) and the pound sterling at 1.2606 dollars (-0 .15%).
OIL
Oil prices fell for the second consecutive session due to a rise in US crude inventories and indications showing that OPEC+ is unlikely to change its production policy at its meeting scheduled for next week.
Brent fell by 0.46% to $85.85 per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) by 0.38% to $81.31.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Zhifan Liu)
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