Paris (awp/afp) – The dollar climbs and borrowing rates tighten on Friday, dragging down world stock markets, after figures on American employment.
Paris finished down 0.79%, London 0.86%, and Frankfurt 0.50%. In Zurich, the SMI lost 1.13%.
In New York, the Nasdaq fell 1.88%, the Dow Jones fell 1.60% and the S&P 500 fell 1.62% around 5:30 p.m. GMT.
Job creation accelerated in December in the United States, causing the unemployment rate to fall slightly and undermining market expectations which were anticipating a slowdown.
Over the last month of the year, 256,000 jobs were created, more than the previous month, the figures of which were however revised slightly downwards (212,000 compared to 227,000 initially), bringing unemployment down to 4.1% (-0. 1 point), according to official data published on Friday.
On the contrary, analysts were counting on a slowdown in job creation and a stable unemployment rate, according to the consensus published by Briefing.com.
From the point of view of investors, this report is “perhaps too positive (…) which fuels the prospect of persistent inflation, because the labor market is still solid”, suggests Patrick O’Hare, of Briefing .com.
“If this robustness continues, this certainly argues in favor of the US Federal Reserve maintaining interest rates at a higher level for a little longer than was forecast a few months ago,” predicts Christian Scherrmann, American economist at DWS.
The majority of analysts expect two rate cuts in 2025, as the institution suggested at the end of 2024, but “rather in the second half”, specifies Mabrouk Chetouane, head of market strategy at Natixis IM, interviewed by AFP.
“It also shows that it is not necessary at this stage to put the American economy on steroids as Donald Trump would like to do with a bunch of budgetary support measures,” continues Mr. Chetouane.
According to him, such a policy “would add pressure to a system already under pressure”, referring to the bond market, which “is starting to feel a pain threshold manifesting itself”.
Indeed, the yield on ten-year US government bonds reached its highest level since October 2023 on Friday and stood at 4.75% around 5:20 p.m. GMT compared to 4.69% at the close on Thursday.
In its wake, France’s 10-year yield (+3.43% at 5:20 p.m. GMT versus +3.39% the day before) reached its highest level since November 2023 on Friday, and that of Germany (+2 .59%) reached a new high since July 2024.
-The borrowing rate on 30-year British bonds on Thursday recorded a new high since July 1998, and yields on 10-year British government bonds are at their highest since July 2008.
On the currency side, the dollar also skyrocketed after this employment publication, the Dollar Index, which compares the greenback to a basket of currencies, reaching its highest since November 2022 at 109.966 points.
Brent surpassed $80 ___
Oil prices jumped on Friday, after Washington announced that it had taken new sanctions against the Russian energy sector to undermine “the Kremlin’s largest source of financing” used for the war effort in Ukraine.
The sanctions target in particular two of the main Russian companies in the sector, Gazprom and Surgutneftegaz, as well as nearly 200 oil tankers and LNG tankers operating from Russia and presented as being part of Moscow’s “ghost fleet”.
Around 5:20 p.m. GMT, the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in March, rose 3.19% to $79.37, after exceeding the $80 mark for the first time since October 2024.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate, for delivery in February, increased by 3.17% to $76.26.
Natural gas reached the mark of 45 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).
Bitcoin gained 2.15% to $94,086.
Holcim down ___
The cement manufacturer Holcim (-1.55%) is moving forward with its plan to split its North American activities by choosing to entrust the position of CEO to Jan Jensich, its emblematic boss and current president, and by appointing the Dane Kim Fausing to succeed him at the head of the group.
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