A street sign for Wall Street hangs in front of the New York Stock Exchange
by Claude Chendjou
Wall Street is expected to fall on Friday amid fears of a slowdown in the pace of interest rate reductions in the United States, while European stock markets are struggling to find a clear direction mid-session, with investors continuing to weigh the implications of a protectionist policy on the part of the American president-elect.
New York index futures signal Wall Street opening down 0.41% for the Dow Jones, 0.54% for the Standard & Poor's 500 and 0.79% for the Nasdaq. In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.17% to 7,299.03 points around 12:00 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax lost 0.12%. In London, the FTSE gained 0.06%, thanks to the basic resources compartment.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.45%, the EuroStoxx 50 of the euro zone 0.40% and the Stoxx 600 0.46%.
Over the week as a whole, the CAC fell at this stage by 0.51% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.38%.
In the United States, the trend should be weighed down by the President of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, who declared on Thursday that it was not necessary for the institution to rush into rate cuts. 'interest. Jerome Powell cites strong economic growth, a solid job market and inflation still above the 2% objective.
The new economic indicators in the United States, which will be published this afternoon, could confirm or allay fears that the Fed will slow down the pace of its monetary easing next year compared to what was previously anticipated .
In Europe, market sentiment is weakened in particular by health stocks following the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine figure, to head the Department of Health in the future administration of Donald Trump.
The health index on the Stoxx 600 fell by 2.2% with GSK, Biontech and Sanofi dropping from 2.90% to 9.78%. VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
Vaccine specialists such as BioNTech, Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax fell pre-market from 0.4% to more than 2%, following the announced appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
New technology giants like Nvidia Apple Alphabet dropped 0.5% to 1% in pre-market trading in reaction to the Fed president's comments on the pace of rate cuts.
VALUES IN EUROPE
Vallourec climbs 7.79% as the French steel tube maker announced on Friday that it would pay its first dividend in 10 years after further reducing its debt and completing a financial restructuring plan. The group also confirmed its annual objectives. Generali takes 4.61%, the leading Italian insurer having posted a 9-month profit higher than estimates, despite a loss of 930 million due to natural disasters.
In mergers and acquisitions, the German drug manufacturer Evotec soared 17.27% after receiving an offer from the American Halozyme Therapeutics valuing it at around two billion euros.
RATES Bond yields in the euro zone vary little on Friday after the comments of the president of the American Federal Reserve.
The yield on the 10-year German Bund, the benchmark for the euro zone, is virtually unchanged at 2.346% and should end a second week in a row at a stable level on a weekly basis. The euro zone debt market has struggled to find direction since Donald Trump's victory in the American elections earlier this month.
In the United States, the yield on ten-year Treasury bonds rose slightly, by 1.6 basis points, to 4.4355%. But the gap with the two-year yield, up 2.6 basis points, at 4.3202%, continues to narrow.
A bear flattener scenario, in which short-term interest rates rise faster than long-term interest rates, reflects the outlook that the Fed may take its time cutting rates, pushing yields higher to short term.
EXCHANGES The dollar is expected to record its biggest weekly rise in more than a month on Friday, supported by expectations of smaller rate cuts from the Fed and by the prospect of an acceleration in inflation in the United States in light of the policy that Donald Trump intends to pursue.
The dollar, which gained nearly 1.8% this week, remains around 106 points against a basket of reference currencies.
The euro, however, recovered slightly on Friday, to 1.0578 dollars (+0.46%). The single European currency is expected to show a weekly decline of 1.4%. It has lost ground six times in the last seven weeks.
The pound sterling advanced 0.24% to $1.2693 but is expected to record its biggest weekly decline since January 2023 over the entire week, with a loss of around 2%.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell back below the $90,000 mark thanks to profit taking after its recent records.
OIL
Oil prices fell on Friday and headed for a weekly loss, due to concerns about a drop in Chinese demand and the new outlook on interest rates from the US Federal Reserve.
Brent lost 0.54% to $72.15 per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) fell 0.49% to $68.35.
Over the week as a whole, Brent should drop 3% and WTI almost 4%.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)
