Headquarters of the London Stock Exchange
by Claude Chendjou
Wall Street should catch its breath on Thursday the day after the index records, while the European stock markets are in good shape at mid-session, continuing to benefit from the good performance of the American markets with the boom in particular in new technologies and artificial intelligence .
New York index futures signal an almost stable opening on Wall Street for the Dow Jones and the Standard & Poor's 500, while the Nasdaq could fall by 0.08% after hitting an unprecedented level on Wednesday, at 19,741. 76 points.
U.S. tech stocks were lifted by upbeat results from companies like Salesforce and Marvell Technology.
In Paris, the CAC 40 advanced 0.24% to 7,321.17 points around 12:00 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax, richer in technological stocks, gained 0.44% after a record of 20,324.32 points. In London, the FTSE is stable.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.30% and the eurozone's EuroStoxx 50 0.54%. The Stoxx 600, driven mainly by finance (+0.39%) and “tech” (+0.77%), increased by 0.28%.
Thursday's decline in the risk premium required by investors to hold French debt, despite the fall of Michel Barnier's government, also demonstrates an appetite for risky assets.
The volatility index on the Eurostoxx 50 fell by 2.82%, to 15.39 points, despite the expected presentation this Thursday of the resignation of the outgoing French Prime Minister to the President of the Republic after the vote of a motion of censure on Wednesday.
“The reaction we're seeing is ultimately stock markets ignoring this vote because in many ways it was widely expected, so it's not really a shock,” says Susannah Streeter, head of monetary management. and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.
President Emmanuel Macron will also speak at 7:00 p.m. GMT on television and could appoint a Prime Minister before the reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame Cathedral on Saturday.
VALUES TO FOLLOW AT WALL STREET
Southwest Airlines gained 2.5% before the opening thanks to Thursday's increase in its revenue per seat forecast for the fourth quarter.
Dollar General lost 4% in pre-market trading after lowering its annual profit forecast due to weak demand and an increase in its costs.
Groups linked to cryptoassets such as Coinbase Global MARA Holdings and MicroStrategy advanced from 3.4% to 6.3% in pre-market trading as bitcoin exceeded the $100,000 mark for the first time.
VALUES IN EUROPE
The main French banks progressed on Thursday with BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole up from 1.36% to 2.58%.
Safran falls 5.11% after the presentation of its new financial objectives.
Coface fell 1.82%, with Deutsche Bank analysts estimating that risks linked to US customs duties will weigh on the credit insurer's prospects.
TotalEnergies advances 0.70%, RBC having raised its recommendation on the group from “performance in line with the sector” to “outperformance”.
Shell fell by 1.42% and Equinor by 0.89%, as the British oil giant and its Norwegian competitor announced that they would merge their British offshore oil and gas assets in an equal joint venture.
Vodafone takes 1.17%, Great Britain having approved on Thursday the merger between the British subsidiary of the group and Three UK, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchinson, an operation worth 19 billion dollars (18.05 billion euros) which will give birth to the country's first mobile telephone operator.
Aurubis jumped 13.62%. The German copper producer proposed Thursday to pay shareholders a higher dividend than expected.
RATE
The yield on the ten-year German Bund, the benchmark for the euro zone, is stable at 2.062%, compared to 2.033% last week, its lowest level since the beginning of October. Its French equivalent is down 3 basis points (bp), to 2.865%. The ten-year OAT-Bund spread returns to around 80 bp after climbing to 90 bp on Monday.
In the United States, where we are already looking forward to the official monthly employment report, the yield on ten-year Treasuries rises by 1.7 basis points, to 4.1993%. Investors are also readjusting their position in light of Jerome Powell's latest statements. The Federal Reserve Chairman said Wednesday that the U.S. economy appears stronger than it appeared in September, which could prompt the central bank to be more cautious in future rate cuts.
CHANGES
The euro rose 0.14% to $1.0525 despite the context of political uncertainty in France.
“The contagion outside the French markets is quite limited. If you look at the spreads between (German and) Italian and Spanish bonds, they have actually decreased, so it does not spread to European markets and that limits the implications for the European economy,” notes Lee Hardman, currency analyst at MUFG.
The single European currency nevertheless remains under pressure, failing to really move away from its two-year low reached at the end of November, at $1.0332, given the bloc's economic outlook. Retail sales statistics in the euro zone showed on Thursday a decline of 0.5% over one month in October, a more marked drop than expected.
The dollar lost 0.17% against a basket of reference currencies.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin, which has increased by more than 50% since the election of Donald Trump in November, reached the unprecedented threshold of $103,169 on Thursday.
OIL
The oil market is trending upwards while according to a source, OPEC+ will delay its plan to increase oil production, currently scheduled for early January, in order to support prices in 2025.
Brent rose 0.53% to $70.60 per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) rose 0.67% to $68.99.
(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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