(Paris) Western stock markets fell slightly on Wednesday, fears about the slowdown in economic activity, even recession, returning to the fore after disappointing economic indicators.
After a session of declines on Tuesday, Wall Street opened mixed: around 9:55 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones was up 0.34%, the S
In Europe too, the indices are trending down in Paris (-0.19%), Frankfurt (-0.41%) and Milan (-0.39%). London is an exception (0.50%).
After the episode of dread experienced by the banking sector in March, the markets regained strength by betting on the probability of an imminent end to the rate hike cycles of the American central bank (Fed).
But since the beginning of the week “the appetite for risk is slowly decreasing […]. The situation is not considered threatening, given that a pullback in equities was starting to be widely expected after such a surge,” said ActivTrade analyst Pierre Veyret.
Several statistics illustrating the economic slowdown fueled fears of recession, as of Tuesday with the drop in industrial orders or that of the labor market where the number of vacancies fell in February to the lowest level since May 2021 (Jolts monthly survey) .
Private sector companies in the United States added 145,000 jobs in March, down sharply from the previous month but also down from analysts’ expectations, according to a report released Wednesday.
In Europe, investors took notice at the start of the session of the slightly weaker than expected recovery in activity in the euro zone in March.
In the bond market, government bond yields turned around after the US private sector job creation report: the US ten-year rate fell to 3.31% from 3.34% on Tuesday evening and its German counterpart (Bund) fell to 2.21% against 2.25%.
Companies in the construction sector suffered in Europe, after the results of the distributor of industrial and electronic products RS Group in London (-6.10%). Its sales continued to grow, but at a slower pace than anticipated in the staggered 4th quarter, ending March 31.
In Paris, Rexel lost 6.41%, Saint-Gobain 4.07%, Legrand 3.68%.
The dollar struggled to regain momentum on Wednesday, as the prospect of a less stringent Federal Reserve (Fed) dampened the greenback and benefited gold, which is approaching its all-time high.
The price of an ounce gained 0.13% to 2023.02 dollars after rising to 2028.44 dollars, a peak since the beginning of 2022. The price of gold is approaching its historic high reached in August 2020 at 2075.47 dollars.
Around 9:50 a.m. (Eastern time), the dollar gained 0.08% against the euro, at 1.0944 dollars for one euro, the single European currency suffering from the publication of the composite PMI for the euro zone.
Despite this, the dollar is unable to move away from its lowest since early February reached the day before at 1.0973 dollars.
By 9:40 a.m. EST, a barrel of Brent North Sea oil for June delivery was down 0.44% at $84.57.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in May, slipped 0.45% to 80.35 dollars.
Bitcoin was up 0.40% at $28,370.