(Paris) Western stock markets are on hold on Wednesday, as investors are in the process of assessing new macroeconomic statistics in the euro zone and the United States.
In Europe, the indices were down slightly in Paris (-0.14%), Frankfurt (-0.29%) and Milan (-0.22%), but up in London (0.40%) towards 7:15 a.m. (Eastern time).
The same caution was emerging on Wall Street ahead of the open, with US index futures forecasting a slight pullback of between 0.06% and 0.13%.
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).
The rise in the markets continued at the start of the week despite a rise in crude oil prices triggered on Monday by the announcement of production cuts by several major hydrocarbon exporting countries, reviving the inflationary risks.
But now, “the main music is playing in the United States and the data of the labor market and the American economy are once again in the foreground”, comments Andreas Lipkow
US markets already gave way on Tuesday after several statistics illustrating the economic slowdown fueled fears of recession, such as 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).
In this context, the job creations in the American private sector in March (ADP/Stanford Lab survey) expected during the day will in turn be closely watched before the official report on employment from the Department of Labor scheduled for Friday.
A cooling in the US labor market would allow the Fed to ease off on rate hikes.
In this climate of growth concerns, investors took note of the slightly weaker-than-expected recovery in eurozone activity in March. It also remains to be seen how they will interpret last month’s ISM services index in the United States.
The Central Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) raised its rate by 50 basis points, while the market expected a hike of 25 points, the day after a pause decided by the Reserve Bank of Australia which was abstained this time from raising its rates.
On the bond market, government bond yields started to rise again: the American ten-year rate rose to 3.36% against 3.33% on Tuesday evening and its German counterpart (Bund) advanced to 2.28% against 2.25%.
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 0.21% to 2022.97 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 7:20 a.m. (Eastern time), the dollar gained 0.15% against the euro, at 1.0936 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 7:25 a.m. EST, a barrel of Brent North Sea oil for June delivery was down 0.07% at $84.88.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in May, slipped 0.35% to 80.42 dollars.
Bitcoin was up 0.84% at $28,495.
