(Paris) The world stock markets closed lower on Monday, after a sluggish session, in the absence of British and American investors, this day being a public holiday on each side of the Atlantic.
Paris lost 0.21%, Frankfurt 0.20% and Milan 0.36%. The Madrid Stock Exchange finally dropped 0.08%, little disturbed by the defeat of the Socialist Party of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez the day before, in municipal and regional elections in Spain.
“There is very little volume and on the equity market nothing is happening”, summarized Alexandre Baradez analyst of IG France, “but beyond the volume aspect, there is a certain restraint of the share of operators” in Europe after the US inflation figures on Friday.
The PCE index, the most significant for the US central bank (Fed), rose 4.4% year on year in April, compared to 4.2% the previous month. The underlying index, which excludes sectors with volatile prices like food and energy, accelerated to 4.7%.
This persistent inflation “does not rule out a hike in key rates in mid-June” from the Fed, notes Alexandre Baradez.
Wall Street may be closed for Memorial Day, but investors are paying particular attention to U.S. index futures, which are hovering between 0.27% and 0.34%.
This weekend, Joe Biden and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement to raise the public debt ceiling of the United States for two years and thus avoid a cataclysmic default.
“If this agreement passes through Congress”, against the backdrop of “visibly persistent inflation, the market will think until mid-June” on the monetary policy of the Fed, details the analyst.
Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims victory in Turkey’s presidential election, in which he won more than 52% of the vote, according to results of more than 99.85 % of ballots in the second round.
The Istanbul Stock Exchange’s BIST 30 index rose more than 4%.
The Turkish lira was penalized by President Erdogan’s policy of maintaining very low interest rates, despite very high inflation. Around 11:50 a.m. (Eastern time), it was still losing ground (-0.62%) against the dollar, at 20.09 Turkish liras per dollar.
The action of the German football club Borussia Dortmund (-27.04%) tumbled after losing the title of first division champion (Bundesliga) on Saturday, in favor of Bayern Munich.
Oil prices were retreating around 11:50 a.m. EST. The barrel of Brent North Sea yielded 0.53%, to 76.54 dollars, and the barrel of American WTI lost 0.23%, to 72.50 dollars.
The euro was flat (-0.08%) against the greenback at $1.0714 per euro.
Bitcoin gained 0.40% to $27,674.