(Paris) Global stock markets continue their positive momentum on Friday morning, now that the threat of a default of payment of the United States is averted thanks to the vote of Congress in the night and before the publication of a key indicator on the American job.
In Europe, Paris gained 0.97%, London 0.65%, Frankfurt 0.82% and Milan 0.63% around 4:15 a.m. (Eastern time).
Asian equities performed very well, particularly Hong Kong, which ended up more than 4%, driven by tech stocks. Tokyo ended sharply up 1.21%, while Shanghai closed 0.79%.
European indices opened “higher this morning after the Senate (unsurprisingly) passed legislation to suspend the US debt ceiling”, “putting an end to a quintessentially American psychodrama” that has been holding investors back so far. breathless, said John Plassard, investment specialist at Mirabaud.
After weeks of negotiations, the United States suspended Thursday by a vote of the American Congress the ceiling of its debt until January 2025 and dismissed, within a few days, the threat of a default.
Now, “the focus is on the state of the global economy and, more significantly, the mounting evidence of a marked slowdown in inflation,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. .
This “greater than expected slowdown in inflation” along with “signs of weak demand” makes “the next step more difficult for central banks, which will have to decide whether to slow or suspend their rate hikes”, set in motion to stem high inflation, according to the analyst.
Investors’ opinions are “divided” on the position the US central bank (Fed) will take at its next meeting on the subject in less than two weeks “between another 25 basis point hike and a pause followed by an increase in July,” says Hewson.
“The US jobs numbers released today may answer that question,” he said.
Analysts expect 195,000 more jobs and the unemployment rate to rise slightly to 3.5%. But leading indicators have consistently exceeded forecasts “in recent months,” warns Ipek Ozkardeskaya, an analyst at Swissquote Bank.
For him, it is likely that the Fed “will stop raising interest rates if it sees that the employment numbers are weaker, wage growth is slowing and the unemployment rate is higher”.
Tech stocks were soaring in Hong Kong, including Chinese internet giant Baidu, which rose 7.48% in the latest trade.
E-commerce giant JD.com (7.00%), competitor Alibaba (6.60%), global video game giant Tencent (5.64%) and smartphone and electronics maker Xiaomi (4.68%) were not left out either.
In Germany, Adidas (3.30%) and Zalando (2.41%) signed two of the three best performances of the DAX at the opening.
Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank Group (SBG) saw its stock jump 4.29% to 5,971 yen. It has once again benefited from the prospect of the listing on Wall Street by the end of the year of its British subsidiary Arm, a manufacturer of microprocessors. The American financial services group Jefferies recently raised its opinion on SBG amid favorable winds in the semiconductor sector.
Oil prices were advancing around 4 a.m. EST. The barrel of Brent from the North Sea gained 1.28% to 75.23 dollars and the barrel of American WTI 1.05%, to 70.92 dollars.
The exchanges knew very small variations. The dollar was almost stable, both against the euro (0.02%), at 0.9290 euros to the dollar, and against the pound sterling (0.01%), at 0.7982 pounds to the dollar.
Bitcoin advanced 0.84% to $27,093.31