(Paris) European stocks tumble mid-session and Wall Street heads for an open with no clear direction, with next week’s agenda slated for several central bank monetary policy decisions.
In Europe, Paris fell by 0.33%, Frankfurt by 0.26%, London by 0.57% and Milan by 0.56% around 7:30 a.m. (Eastern time).
In New York, futures for the three major indices were heading in different directions: the Dow Jones was down 0.22% around 7:30 a.m. EST, the S
In Asia, the trend was quite different. In China, Hong Kong closed up 0.47% and Shanghai 0.55%. In Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 1.97%, following yesterday’s gains on Wall Street and betting on an upcoming pause in US monetary policy.
Upcoming central bank meetings are in the sights of investors. That of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) will be held on June 13 and 14, followed by those of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday and the Bank of Japan on Friday.
On the eurozone side, “the ECB may have to wait until September or even later before it has solid evidence that underlying inflation is slowing enough to put a pause or even stop the cycle of rate hike,” Deutsche Bank analysts say.
Elsewhere in the economic news, inflation in China was near zero in May as ex-factory prices continued to plunge, signs of sluggish demand and a complicated environment for businesses, official figures showed on Friday.
The consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation in China, rose in May by 0.2% year on year, against 0.1% a month earlier, according to the National Bureau of statistics (BNS), which is exactly what analysts interviewed by the Bloomberg agency expected.
Bond debt rates twitched slightly on Friday. At around 7:20 a.m. (Eastern time), the interest on the French 10-year loan was at 2.95%, compared to 2.94% the previous day at the close. The interest on the German 10-year loan was displayed at 2.41%, against 2.40% the day before.
In London, the chemical group Croda fell by nearly 12.5% around 7:30 a.m. (Eastern time), after announcing on Friday that a significant drop in sales at the start of the year would weigh on its annual result. .
In Frankfurt, sector values were also at half mast. Symrise was down nearly 4.5% by 7:25 a.m. EST, BASF was down 1.62%, Bayer was down 1.33% and Brenntag was down 3.35%.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for August delivery took 0.43% to 76.29 dollars around 7:20 a.m. (Eastern time) and its American equivalent the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) due in July gained 0.42% to $71.59.
The dollar was picking up after marked losses the day before, particularly against the yuan, with near-zero inflation in China suggesting a flexible monetary policy.
Around 7:25 a.m. (Eastern Time), the Dollar Index, which compares the greenback to a basket of other major currencies, gained 0.15% to 103.53 points.
Bitcoin fell 0.12% to $26,612.