(New York) European stock markets saw Friday in US labor market data the promise of an imminent end to the monetary tightening cycle, ending in the green while Wall Street continued its consolidation.
The Paris stock exchanges (0.75%), Frankfurt (0.37%), London (0.47%) rebounded, while Milan fell by 0.41%.
In contrast, after rising at the open, the Wall Street indices turned around.
The Dow Jones fell 0.43%, the NASDAQ index returned 0.36% and the broad index S
The US economy added 187,000 jobs in July, less than the 200,000 expected by economists. In addition, the figures for May and June have been revised down by 49,000 jobs in total.
These figures reinforce “the idea that the central bank’s rate hikes have had an effect”, and that the monetary tightening is coming to an end, according to Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Martkets.
Shadow on the board, the higher than expected increase in the average salary, of 0.4% over one month against 0.3% in June, a negative signal on the inflation front.
Nationwide’s Kathy Bostjancic says Federal Reserve (Fed) members will wait for more data this month and early September “before deciding if they can take a break or need another hike.” rate”.
After renewed nervousness in the bond market on Thursday, interest rates fell sharply.
That of the 10-year American debt fell to 4.04% against 4.18% at the close of the previous day. The rate for the 2-year maturity, which is more sensitive to monetary policy expectations, did the same, at 4.76% against 4.88% the previous day.
In Europe, the yield on the German 10-year government bond, which rose in early European trading, fell to 2.51% from 2.60% at the previous day’s close.
The dollar was also weighed down by expectations of the end of the Fed’s monetary tightening.
It was falling against most other currencies. Against the euro, the greenback lost 0.54% to 0.9083 euros to the dollar and against the pound it lost 0.25% to 0.7845 pounds to the dollar.
Lionel Melka, partner at Swann Capital, also points out that “we expected a very macroeconomic day and in the end it was a rather microeconomic day with the good results of Amazon and Crédit Agricole, as well as those published by WPP in London “.
Amazon soared 8.27% after smashing expectations for its quarterly profit and doing better than expected on revenue, thanks to its remote computing (cloud) business, a sector that had also boosted profits Alphabet (1.27%) and Microsoft (1.87%).
On the other hand, Apple dropped 4.80%, after having published for the third quarter of its shifted fiscal year a turnover again in decline (-1.4%), for the third time in a row.
Several companies delighted investors on Friday, including Crédit Agricole (6.14% in Paris) and its record net profit, Sika (4.18% in Zurich), Monte dei Paschi (3.29% in Milan) or Aribnb (1 .60% in New York).
On the other hand, Capita (-16.17%) and WPP (-3.61%) were particularly penalized in London after their results. In Copenhagen, Maersk lost 4.88%, in Frankfurt Commerzbank fell 2.60% and in Zurich Swiss Re fell 1.66%.
Oil prices continued to rise, driven by tight supply.
The decline in the greenback also helped crude prices, which are traded in dollars.
A barrel of Brent North Sea oil, for October delivery, rose 1.29% to $86.24.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for September delivery, gained 1.55% to 82.82 dollars.
Bitcoin fell 0.95% to $29,039.