Paris (awp/afp) – World stock markets are moving in the green but cautiously on Wednesday, awaiting the outcome of the meeting of the American Federal Reserve on monetary policy.
On Wall Street, the main indices were in the green at 5:00 p.m. GMT, the Nasdaq at 0.20%, the S&P 500 0.21%, and the Dow Jones 0.34%.
In Europe, Frankfurt (-0.02%) and London (+0.05%) finished stable, Paris up slightly (+0.26%). In Zurich, the SMI fell 0.87%.
“Attention is turning to the Fed’s decision,” note Natixis economists.
The majority of analysts are counting on a 0.25 point drop in its key rates, at the conclusion of this meeting which began on Tuesday and which will end on Wednesday.
But several recent data demonstrate the persistence of inflation and the resilience of activity in the United States, which encourages investors to be cautious.
This “once again underlines the uselessness of a further rate cut by the Federal Reserve today. But the Fed will still announce a cut of 0.25 points, whatever happens”, estimates Ipek Ozkardeskata, analyst for Swissquote Bank.
A few weeks before Donald Trump takes power, the Fed’s comments will also be scrutinized, because “the big unknown is the form that the projections relating to (its) policy will take (…) in 2025, notes Patrick O’Hare from Briefing.com.
Investors “could potentially be very disappointed by rate cuts that are less steep than expected” if the institution “considers that there is still a little inflation to be curbed”, adds Lionel Melka, associate for AFP. manager within Swann Capital. This policy could benefit the dollar.
The American currency recovered 0.21% against the euro, to 1.0469 dollars per euro at 11:00 GMT.
On the bond side, the interest rate on the ten-year American loan was 4.40%, the same level as the day before. At two years, it fell slightly to 4.22%, compared to 4.25% the day before.
In Europe, British inflation continued in November a rise that began the previous month, at 2.6% over one year, in line with economists’ expectations, according to data published by the National Statistics Office.
This figure should confirm analysts’ favored assumption that the Bank of England will not cut rates at its monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
The interest rate on the British ten-year bond reached 4.56%, compared to 4.52% the day before at closing.
Renault leaps ___
The title of the French automobile group Renault ended at +5.21% at 46.82 euros after the Japanese giant Honda (-3.04% at the close in Tokyo) indicated that it was exploring the possibility of a merger with its compatriot Nissan (+23.70%).
Renault still owns 17% of Nissan directly and 18.6% via a trust, for a total of 35.6%.
This merger could accelerate the unraveling of Nissan’s historic alliance with Renault, which has already been gradually reducing its presence in the Japanese group’s capital since last year.
For Commerzbank, la dolce vita ___
Unicredit (+1.31%), the second largest Italian banking group, announced that it now holds “around 28%” of the capital of the German bank Commerzbank (+1.37%), after having increased in recent weeks to 21%.
The news “broke in the middle of the calm” in Frankfurt, and “the Italians are thus getting very close to their objective of acquiring a 29.9% share”, comments Konstantin Oldenburger, analyst at CMC Markets.
Bitcoin slows down ___
Bitcoin fell 2.15% to $104,120 around 5:00 p.m. GMT.
Oil prices rose slightly on Wednesday, fueled by the prospect of a Fed rate cut and a decline in commercial crude reserves in the United States.
A barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in February, rose 1.13% to $74.02.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in January, gained 1.47%, to $71.11.
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