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Updated with close of Oil and Wall Street
NEW YORK (awp/afp) – Western stock markets ended lower again on Friday, prompted to be cautious by signals of a generalized economic slowdown, in particular the profit warning from the courier group FedEx.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones lost 0.45%, the Nasdaq index fell 0.90% and the S&P 500 index dropped 0.72%. Nasdaq and S&P had their worst week since June.
In Europe, Paris lost 1.31%, Frankfurt 1.66%, both losing 2% over the week. London fell by 0.62%, and Milan by 1.14%.
In Asia, Tokyo lost 2.3% over the five sessions, and Shanghai more than 4%.
“Markets remain jittery,” Schwab analysts said in a note, a state “which has been exacerbated by the dire picture painted by FedEx.”
The courier group published Thursday, after the stock market and in advance, results below expectations. The title FedEx was cut, losing 21.39% in one session, to 161.04 dollars.
Chief Executive Raj Subramaniam said he expects the global economy to hit a recession soon. Given the uncertainty about the economic situation, the group withdrew its annual forecasts.
“The data trend is going in the wrong direction,” said Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management. “It looks like consumers are starting to ease off” on their spending.
In the United States, consumer confidence picked up a little in September compared to August, but less than expected, due to uncertainty about the evolution of inflation and economic activity, according to the preliminary estimate of the University of Michigan.
“We have more pronounced signs of an economic slowdown”, abounds Quentin Doulcet, manager of Myria AM, citing in particular “the economic warnings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank” during the week.
The darkening outlook for the global economy comes as the US central bank (Fed) prepares to raise rates again next week and has already signaled that further hikes are on the way.
The firmness of the Fed benefited the dollar: it reached its highest since 1985 against the pound, weakened by fears of recession in the United Kingdom. A pound was worth 1.1419 dollars (-0.41%) around 8:40 p.m. GMT, while the euro remained around parity, at 1.0011 dollars for one euro.
Bitcoin stabilized (-0.32%) after losing more than 12% over the week, at 19,713 dollars.
“We also have more pronounced signs of an economic slowdown”, develops Quentin Doulcet, manager of Myria AM, citing in particular “the economic warnings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank” during the week.
Postal workers in need of parcels
FedEx’s warning weighed on European stocks in the sector: Royal Mail fell 8.08% in London and Deutsche Post 6.36% in Frankfurt.
Transport giants Maersk (-5.31% in Copenhagen) and Kuehne+Nagel (-3.36% in Zurich) were also penalized.
As for FedEx’s big competitor, the American UPS, it also suffered (-4.48%).
The defenses hold up
In this cautious context, so-called defensive stocks, i.e. less sensitive to the economic situation, did well, in particular the cable operator Comcast (+1.53%), McDonald’s (+0 .57%), Johnson and Johnson (+1.53%) or Merck (+1.12%).
In Europe, Astrazeneca (-0.32%), Sanofi + (0.32%), InBev (+0.07%), Carrefour (+0.64%) were sought.
On the energy side
Oil prices ended slightly higher on Friday, helped by an incident at Iraq’s leaky Basra terminal as the market appears to be stabilizing.
The price of a barrel of Brent North Sea oil for November delivery gained 0.56% to close at $91.35.
The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), due in October, ended almost at equilibrium (+0.01%), at 85.11 dollars.
European natural gas lost 12% to 186.7 euros per megawatt hour.
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