(New York) European stocks ended rather positively on Thursday, and Wall Street closed in the green for the first time in four sessions, in a New York rebound led by technology.
The Paris Stock Exchange took 0.25%, Frankfurt 0.49% and Milan 0.65%. London lost 0.29%, weighed down by a decline in mining stocks.
After a seesaw session, the New York Stock Exchange concluded in the green. The Dow Jones gained 0.33%, the S&P 500 0.53% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ gained 0.72%.
US GDP growth in Q4 2022 was revised down to 2.7% from 2.9% initially forecast, while PCE inflation in Q4 came in at 3.7 % against a rate of 3.2% previously published.
Weekly jobless claims last week in the US were lower than expected, but still show a very tight labor market.
For Michaël Nizard, director of multi-asset investments at Edmond de Rothschild AM, these figures “remain in line with investors’ fears”, namely, according to him, the risk of a new wave of inflation, due to tensions on the labor market, which would push the American central bank (Fed) to raise its rates more than expected.
On the bond market, sovereign debt interest rates have risen sharply in recent weeks.
The two-year yields, the maturity most sensitive to monetary policy expectations, on bonds from France and Germany are just below 3%, at levels not seen since 2008.
But on 10-year US Treasuries, bond yields eased to 3.87% from 3.91% the day before, around 4:15 p.m. EST.
Semiconductors launched
The action of graphics card specialist Nvidia, one of the market leaders in chips applied to artificial intelligence, soared 14.02% to 236.64 dollars, after annual results higher than analysts’ estimates.
Other companies in the semiconductor sector benefited from this publication, such as AMD (+4.10%) and Micron Technology (+3.11%) on Wall Street. Or in Europe, STMicroelectronics (+1.62%), Infineon (+1.62%) and ASM (+1.15%).
Online sales on hold
First up, Alibaba shares fell 0.65% in New York. The Chinese e-commerce giant reported a 2% rise in revenue in the last quarter of 2022 and earnings that beat analysts’ expectations.
The title eBay plunged 5.22%, for lack of convincing prospects for investors.
Norwegian online ad specialist Adevinta, owner of the Leboncoin site, suffered a heavy loss last year due to asset write-downs. The title fell 3.44% in Oslo.
John Wood gets desired
The British energy services and consulting group John Wood soared 28.99% in London, after announcing its rejection of three takeover offers made by the American management company Apollo Global Management.
Among other results
An ambitious transformation plan has carried Rolls-Royce shares (+23.68% in London), despite a heavy annual loss recorded in 2022.
Anglo American fell 2.46%, after announcing a net profit down almost 50% for 2022, taking the mining sector into the red: Antofagasta lost 5.47% and BHP 2.07%.
Also in London, WPP (+3.44%) announced net profit group share up 7%.
In Milan, Eni fell by 5.26%.
Commodities and Currencies
Oil prices rose.
A barrel of Brent North Sea oil for April delivery gained 1.99% to $82.21.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery the same month, took 1.94% to 75.39 dollars.
The price of European natural gas concluded at 50.65 euros per megawatt hour.
On the foreign exchange market, the euro yielded 0.08% against the dollar, at 1.0597 dollars, around 4:45 p.m. (Eastern time), after having touched its lowest level since the beginning of January. The pound lost 0.23% to 1.2018 dollars.