Western stock markets are showing some caution on Monday, waiting for new macroeconomic indicators and company results to position themselves.
After a higher opening, European stock indices changed tack in Paris, which fell 0.28%, in Frankfurt (-0.11%) and Milan (-0.62%) while London held up better (+0.10%), driven by commodities.
Same caution on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones index stagnated (-0.02%), the Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, fell by 0.32% and the S&P 500 by 0.20%.
“
Market players are betting largely on an upcoming break in interest rates followed by a reversal of the rate trend in the United States
,” notes Andreas Lipkow, for Comdirect.
“
However, stable economic data quashed those expectations
,” he continued.
Manufacturing activity in the highly industrialized region of New York beat expectations and returned to growth in April for the first time in five months, thanks to an increase in new orders, but employment continues to decline.
"
Two forces will oppose each other on the markets in the second quarter
" with on the one hand "
a continued slowdown in inflation, a preamble to less aggressive speeches from central banks later this year
" and another “
very real risk of contraction of the American economy
”, “
which could curb the appetite for risky assets via worse corporate results
”, anticipates Alexandre Baradez, analyst at IG France.
“
Consumer fatigue in Europe and the United States is expected to increase in the second quarter, also limiting the ability of companies to raise prices, unlike last year,
” he explains.
Several speeches from officials of the US Central Bank are expected this week, which will give analysts more food for thought ahead of the institution's monetary policy meeting in early May.
In the euro zone, the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, acknowledged on Sunday that the recent banking crisis could do part of the work of the institution to reduce inflation, deeming it essential to observe the extent to which banks are tightening or not the credit conditions.
As for microeconomic information, the publications of company results continue this week, with in particular L'Oréal, Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs, and Ericsson.
Investors will take notice of the economic growth figure in China on Tuesday, which will give a first glimpse of the impact of the lifting of anti-Covid restrictions on the world's second largest economy in the first quarter.
Airbus and Air France relaxed
The European manufacturer Airbus and the company Air France, prosecuted for manslaughter after the crash in 2009 of flight AF447 Rio-Paris which killed 228 people, were released on Monday in Paris.
The Airbus share gained 1.43% and that of Air France-KLM 2.07%.
Coveted THG
Shares of online beauty and nutrition retailer The Hut Group (THG) soared more than 44% after it revealed it had been approached by US venture capital fund Apollo for a possible takeover.
THG confirmed in a statement that “
it has received a highly preliminary and non-binding indicative proposal from Apollo Global Management
”.
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The car slowed down by a note
Barclays has downgraded its recommendation to "
negative
", against "
neutral
" previously, for the European automotive sector.
In Paris, Renault dropped 3.92%, Stellantis 1.07%.
In Stockholm, Volvo Car lost 3.54%.
German manufacturers Volkswagen (-0.63%) and Mercedes (-1.65%) unveiled two new high-end 100% electric models in China on Monday as part of their offensive against Tesla and Chinese companies in the e -mobility, where the Germans are lagging behind.
On the side of oil and currencies
On the foreign exchange market, the euro lost 0.72% against the dollar at 1.0912 dollars around 3:55 p.m. GMT.
Oil prices were retreating as fears that a sluggish global economy was consuming less than expected offset sharp output cuts by some OPEC+ members.
The barrel of American WTI lost 1.98% to 80.91 dollars around 1:45 p.m. GMT and that of Brent from the North Sea fell 1.74% to 84.83 dollars.
The bitcoin fell by 3.26% and fell back below the 30,000 dollar mark.