(Paris) World stock markets closed down on Tuesday, like the day before and after several weeks of gains, disappointed by the magnitude deemed insufficient of the measures of the Chinese central bank to stimulate the country’s economic recovery.
Wall Street was trading in negative territory on Tuesday, continuing the consolidation that began on Friday after several weeks of gains, amid end-of-quarter moves. Around 12 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones was down 0.91%, the NASDAQ index was down 0.67%, and the broader S index
“We had a series of hikes thanks to the hope that the Fed (US central bank) would take a break [in the policy of raising its rates], which happened,” comments Adam Sarhan, of 50 Park Investments.
“But we went too far, too fast,” the manager said. “It’s not normal to see the NASDAQ go up eight weeks in a row. The market is therefore ripe for a correction. The question is how big and how long will it be, continues Adam Sarhan.
In a similar dynamic, in Europe, the financial centers ended lower: Paris dropped 0.27%, Frankfurt 0.55% and London 0.25%.
“Today we are between two waters”, on the one hand, the markets are “digesting the decisions of the central banks of the last week”, on the other, they are “awaiting the publication of the PMI indicators at the end of the week” for the euro zone, comments Florian Roger, head of investment strategy at BNP Paribas CIB.
“Until then, corporate cash reserves are still deferring” the effects of rate hikes led by monetary institutions, the effect of which is to slow the economy by fighting inflation, “but we come to a point where those reservations come to an end,” the analyst continues.
In this context, the PMI of activity in the services sector “is going to be important for the economic outlook for the second half of the year”, he adds.
Investors had high expectations for stimulus in China after several disappointing economic data, but they weren’t completely satisfied.
China’s central bank cut two benchmark rates on Tuesday, following several similar moves in recent weeks, to encourage commercial banks to extend more credit and at better rates.
Closely followed by the markets, these two rates are now at their historic lows, but greater declines were hoped for by investors.
After several days of increases, long-term 10-year bond yields eased slightly in both Europe and the United States.
The yield on 10-year US government bonds was 3.71%, down from 3.76% at the close on Friday. The interest rate of the German loan at the same maturity was at 2.40% against 2.51 and the French at 2.92% against 3.02%.
News from China added to the gloom in European trading.
With the takeover of Credit Suisse, UBS (-2.38% in Zurich) risks having to pay heavy fines of “several million dollars” in the Archegos case, according to the Financial Times, which says the bank has contacted the authorities of regulation.
In Frankfurt, Covestro ended up 12.90% after reports from Bloomberg of a potential takeover of Covestro by Emirati national oil company ADNOC.
The stock was down more than 5% in the morning, in the wake of earnings warning from chemist Lanxess (-15.39%).
Asked by AFP, Covestro did not want to “comment on market rumours”.
Oil prices were turning around after being pushed earlier in the session by China’s benchmark interest rate cut, though tempered by worries about the country’s growth.
The American WTI barrel dropped 2.24% to 70.17 dollars and the Brent barrel 0.98% to 75.34 dollars around 11:55 a.m. (Eastern time).
The euro dropped 0.15% to $1.0904.
Bitcoin was up 1.30% at $27,067.