(Paris) World markets fell on Wednesday, in the wake of the US technology sector and ahead of the publication of US inflation figures for July.
Posted at 6:34 a.m.
The Paris Stock Exchange was down 0.22%, London 0.12%. Frankfurt (-0.05%) and Milan (+0.05%) were almost stable around 7:20 GMT.
In Asia, Tokyo lost 0.65%. In China, where inflation hit a two-year high in July but came out below analysts’ estimates, the Shanghai Stock Exchange lost 0.54% and that of Hong Kong, where companies in the Chinese tech, fell 2.38% in the latest trade.
Doomsday warnings from semiconductor makers about immediate demand for electronic components are dragging the tech sector down.
Micron Technology warned Tuesday that its quarterly revenues could fall below its forecasts and the day before, Nvidia had also warned that its second quarter would suffer a “significant slowdown on the side of video games”.
As a result, the New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Tuesday, with the NASDAQ losing more than 1%.
Since the beginning of the week, the markets have been waiting for the publication on Wednesday of the consumer price index (CPI) for July in the United States. They will scrutinize from 12:30 GMT the details of the core inflation figures and core inflation (adjusted for food and energy prices) to anticipate future Central Bank measures American, the Fed.
The latter, which is on a ridge between fighting inflation and avoiding a recession, said that its future hikes in key rates will be defined according to economic statistics.
“The US CPI is expected to have slowed to 8.7% in July, from 9.1% the previous month”, notably thanks to a drop “in energy and raw material prices”, according to Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at SwissQuote, but “the increase in wages and the high level of rents remain factors which could maintain inflation at considerable levels”, she qualifies.
A figure that is in line or weaker than estimates should release pressure and lead to higher equities and lower rates in the bond market, where investors anticipate sharp hikes in the Fed’s key rates, the analyst said. from SwissQuote.
Conversely, if the data is stronger than expected “or, even worse, higher than last month (“9.1%), this would revive expectations that the Fed will continue to raise rates significantly, d especially since the job market seems surprisingly resilient to Fed tightening so far,” she adds.
In the bond market, yields were frozen before the release of this data. The rate of US two-year debt remained well above that of ten years, a sign that investors expect a recession in the economy.
Investors will also take notice of inflation figures in Germany and Italy.
The tech looks gray
Between pessimistic forecasts of semiconductor manufacturers and high borrowing rates, stocks in the technology sector are not helped.
The Hong Kong stock index was penalized by the drop in Alibaba (-2.51%), Tencent (-1.61%), Baidu (-4.09%), JD.com (-5.16%) or even Meituan (-4.72%).
In Europe, Worldline yielded 0.92%, Deliveroo 2.72%, Zalando 2.20%.
As for semiconductors, the German Infineon fell by 0.92% and the Dutch ASML by 0.87%.
On the side of oil, the euro and bitcoin
Oil prices were falling around 07:15 GMT as investors digest the possibility of Iranian crude returning to the market if Tehran approves the final nuclear text negotiated in Austria and further cuts in Russian oil deliveries to Europe .
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in October fell 0.57% to 95.77 dollars. That of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) US for delivery in September yielded 0.73% to 89.80 dollars.
The euro stabilized (+0.01%) against the greenback, at 1.0214 dollars.
Bitcoin fell 0.86% to $22,945.