Paris (awp/afp) – World stock markets are taking a break on Thursday while awaiting Donald Trump's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in a session marked by the decline in the semiconductor sector.
Around 4:00 p.m., Paris took 0.47%, Frankfurt 0.28%, Milan 0.47% and London 0.19%.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq lost 0.50%, the S&P 500 0.10% and the Dow Jones gained 0.19%.
Companies in the semiconductor sector are everywhere in the red, let down after South Korean giant SK Hynix, supplier to American chip giant Nvidia, published quarterly results considered insufficiently impressive.
In New York, Nvidia fell 1.05%, Advanced Micro Devices 1.61% and Broadcom 1.03%. In Europe, ASML lost 4.71%, BE Semiconductor Industries 4.53%, ASM 3.34% and STMicroelectronics 0.75%.
The markets were also digesting some other company results, such as those of American Airlines, which despite results above expectations in the fourth quarter, was penalized for forecasts considered disappointing. The title fell by 8.20% in New York.
On a macroeconomic scale, Donald Trump continues to monopolize the market's attention. The President of the United States, the world's leading economic power, is due to speak via videoconference at 4:00 p.m. GMT before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
His speech is expected to last 45 minutes and includes a question-and-answer session with big bosses, including Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies.
Trump's declarations on the future trade policy of the United States will be particularly closely followed, after he threatened at the beginning of the week a drastic increase in customs duties for Mexico and Canada from February, but also for the European Union and China.
The absence of concrete and immediate measures reassures European markets for the moment.
Puma dives
German sportswear giant Puma plunged 22.12% in Frankfurt around 4:00 p.m., after publishing disappointing preliminary annual results the day before.
-The company reported an operating profit at the same level as the previous year (+622 million euros) and a net profit of 282 million euros, down from 305 million euros. euros in 2023 and less than expected by analysts.
In this context, the group announced the launch of a “cost reduction” program.
Elsewhere on the European stock market, JD Sports lost 2.87%, Marks & Spencer 2.18%, H&M 0.97% and Associated British Foods, which owns Primark, fell 3.72%.
Gas and oil on the rise
The price of European gas is driven by growth in global demand, but also reserves that are much lower than last year on the Old Continent.
Still around 4:00 p.m., the Dutch TTF futures contract, the European benchmark for natural gas, gained 0.71% to 49.06 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), after having gained more than 3% in the morning.
Oil is also on the rise: the price of a barrel of American WTI rose 0.48% to $75.80, and that of Brent from the North Sea rose 0.52% to $79.41.
On the exchange side, the dollar rose 0.46% against the single European currency, to 1.0409 dollars per euro.
Bitcoin fell 1.67% to $105,002.
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