Global markets rebound after a week under stress

(Paris) World stock markets rose on Friday to end a turbulent week, the day’s indicators on the health of the American economy having underlined its resistance even if inflation started to rise again.

Wall Street was moving higher: around 11:45 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones was up 0.86% and the S

The European indices also ended the week on a high note. Paris took 1.24%, London 0.74%, Frankfurt 1.20% and Milan 1.16%. However, all are down sharply over the week.

Inflation in the United States, which had been slowing for several months, started to rise again in April, both year-on-year and month-on-month, according to the PCE index released Friday by the Commerce Department and which is favored by the Reserve. Federal (Fed).

“Investors may have overestimated the pace of disinflation,” and how long it will take to bring price inflation back to around 2%, the target of central banks, said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.

US household incomes also rose 0.4%, compared to 0.3% in March. As for spending, it rebounded strongly: 0.8% against 0.1% the previous month.

Consumer confidence ended May with a smaller decline than the University of Michigan’s first estimate, according to data released Friday.

With an economy showing “incredible resilience” according to Mr. Erlam and inflation still stubborn, the possibility that the US central bank continues to hike rates at its next meeting remains in the minds of investors.

They give a probability of more than 35% to this scenario which seemed excluded to them at the beginning of the month.

In recent weeks, several Fed officials have postponed the scenario of an end to the cycle of key rate hikes by the end of the year.

In the bond market, sovereign interest rates were stable after a rise in the past two weeks that pushed them close to their peak in mid-March.

In the United States, despite days and nights of discussions, the teams of Democratic President Joe Biden and the negotiators of the Republican camp have not yet found a budget compromise to raise the American debt ceiling.

But these negotiations are “productive”, executive spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday, seeing it as proof that there is “a way forward” towards an agreement.

Automakers Volkswagen (1.17%) and Audi (owned by Volkswagen) will be fined $85 million (€79 million) in Texas for violating state environmental regulations following the scandal rigged engines, State Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday night, citing a settlement reached with the two companies on the matter. Contacted by AFP, the group did not wish to react.

Oil prices were rebounding around 11:35 a.m. EST after a volatile week. The barrel of Brent from the North Sea gained 0.95% to 77.00 dollars and the barrel of American WTI 1.22% to 72.71 dollars.

The day after a sharp drop, the price of gas fell another 3.13%, to 24.65 euros per megawatt hour for the benchmark European contract, its lowest since May 2021.

The euro fell 0.17% against the greenback at $1.0707 per euro.

Bitcoin gains 1.15% to $26,800.