(Paris) European stock markets fell on Friday and Wall Street had its worst week since the start of the year in the face of a rise in bond yields, a rise in oil prices and renewed geopolitical tensions in Europe.
On the Old Continent, Paris (-0.82%) and Frankfurt (-1.39%) recorded their second week of decline since the start of the year and the worst since mid-December. London lost 0.36% and Milan 0.86%.
On Wall Street, the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell 0.61% while the Dow Jones and S&P 500 gained 0.50% and 0.22% respectively. But over the week, the S&P 500 dropped 1.1% and the NASDAQ 2.4%, their weakest weekly performance since the start of the year.
Sovereign yields started to rise again, after a lull the day before, returning close to their highest level since January 3, for 10-year maturities, in France, at 2.83%, and in Germany, at 2. 36%. The US 10-year rate was at 3.74%, down from 3.66% on Thursday at the close.
Short-term rates, the most sensitive to monetary policy expectations, rose even more. That of Germany with a two-year maturity reached 2.74%, its highest since 2008.
The long series of interventions by central bankers to remind investors that the fight against inflation was not over and that it could still require increases in key rates ended up changing a little the vision of operators on the policies future money.
Next week will be published the consumer price index for January in the United States.
For David Kruk, head of trading at La Financière de l’Échiquier, investors understood that disinflation was becoming a reality and that inflation figures should no longer cause major turmoil in the markets, unless they are particularly surprising.
“The real debate today is about the quality of corporate results, which have been mixed so far,” he said. “In the short term, we risk having worse results and downgraded prospects”, especially since consumption is likely to slow down.
The geopolitical situation may have also encouraged some investors to be cautious after the announcement of the overflight by a cruise missile of Moldova, which decided to summon the Russian ambassador, as well as the surge in oil prices.
The oil companies go up
The stock markets were also weighed down by the rise in crude oil prices this week, which were galvanized by the announcement of a reduction in production in Russia. Oil stocks, on the other hand, were pushed higher.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for April delivery gained 2.23%, to close at $86.39, while the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), with March maturity, appreciated 2.12% to $79.72.
Italian energy giant Enel (+1.72%) saw its revenue jump 63.9% in 2022. Elsewhere, TotalEnergies gained 2.59%, Repsol 4.08%, BP 2.62%. ExxonMobil jumped 4.22%, and Chevron 2.10%.
Road exit for Lyft
Chauffeur-driven car rental company Lyft plunged more than 36% after reporting a disappointing outlook for the current quarter due to harsh weather conditions in California, where the company has a large presence.
In the process, its competitor but leader in the sector Uber, platform for booking vehicles with driver (VTC) and meal deliveries, lost 4.43%.
Adidas skid
The second largest sports equipment manufacturer in the world tumbled 10.88% after the sharp drop in its net profit in 2022 and the announcement that the rupture of its collaboration with the American rapper Kanye West could tip it into the red in 2023.
On the currency side
The euro fell 0.60% to 1.0676 dollars, and the pound 0.55% to 1.2054 dollars around 4:40 p.m. (Eastern time).
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to nominate economist Kazuo Ueda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), several Japanese media announced on Friday without citing sources, a surprise that briefly sent the yen jumping. It stood at 131.42 yen for one dollar (+0.13%).
Bitcoin fell 1.59% to $21,508.