World stock markets fell on Tuesday, before the start of the highly anticipated monetary meeting of the American Central Bank (Fed).
Wall Street opened in the red: around 2:50 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones lost 0.53%, the broader S&P 500 index 0.38% and the Nasdaq 0.37%.
All eyes are on the American central bank, the Fed, which meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.
At the end of this meeting, the monetary institution should “announce an additional reduction of 0.25 percentage points”, according to Ipek Ozkardeskaya, of Swissquote Bank, aligned with the consensus.
However, several data published last week call for caution, inflation and producer prices having rebounded in the United States in November.
To this were added consumption figures on Tuesday, better than expected in November, driven by a record Black Friday period, showing the resilience of the American economy and therefore a lesser need for a rate cut.
Retail sales totaled $724.6 billion in November, 0.7% higher than the previous month, compared to 0.5% expected by the consensus published by briefing.com.
The comments of Jerome Powell, the president of the Fed, will be particularly scrutinized before Donald Trump comes to power in January, synonymous with uncertainty for the economy.
In this context, the yield on 10-year US government bonds rose to 4.40% around 2:50 p.m. GMT, the same level as the day before.
In Europe, around 12:50 GMT, the CAC 40 was in balance (+0.09%), Frankfurt fell by 0.21%.
Stock markets must deal with the “collapse” of the French and German governments, observes John Plassard, investment specialist for Mirabaud.
The Banque de France on Monday lowered its French growth forecast for 2025, now forecasting GDP growth of 0.9% in 2025, compared to 1.2% previously.
In Germany, Olaf Scholz lost MPs’ vote of confidence on Monday, leading Europe’s largest economy into legislative elections on February 23.
In addition, the morale of German entrepreneurs fell in November, to the lowest since May 2020, according to the Ifo Institute on Tuesday.
The London FTSE 100 stock index fell by 0.69%, after the publication of British employment indicators which “exceeded expectations”, observes Patrick Munnelly, analyst at Tickmill Group.
These figures weigh on the prospect of a reduction in key rates hoped for by the markets – the British Central Bank meets on Thursday.
The British ten-year interest rate rose to 4.51%, compared to 4.44% the day before in this context.
The Canadian dollar at its lowest
The Canadian dollar continues to fall after the resignation of the country’s Deputy Prime Minister on Monday, in open conflict over the direction of fiscal policy in the face of a possible strengthening of customs taxes towards the United States.
Around 2:50 p.m. GMT, the Canadian currency fell 0.38% against the greenback, to 1.4297 Canadian dollars, shortly after falling to its lowest since April 2020, at 1.4291 Canadian dollars.
The American dollar remained stable (+0.05%) against the euro, at 1.0506 dollars per euro.
Oil in decline
Oil prices were falling due to a sluggish recovery in the Chinese economy: a barrel of WTI depreciated by 1.03% to $69.98 and that of Brent from the North Sea lost 0.94%. at $73.21.
Bitcoin continued its race for records and was trading around 2:50 p.m. GMT at $107,879.
Nucera sees green
The specialist in electrolysis to produce green hydrogen, Thyssenkrupp Nucera (+15.08% at 2:50 p.m. GMT), recorded a net profit of 11 million euros for the staggered financial year ended at the end of September, compared to 24 million the previous year and despite an operational loss (Ebit) of 14 million euros, more than offset by high interest income.
With AFP
