(Paris) The stock markets lacked dynamism on Wednesday, faced with still high British inflation, interest rates that had returned to a high level and multiple corporate results.
Wall Street opened lower: Around 9:45 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones fell 0.40%, the S&P500 0.46% and the NASDAQ 0.61%.
In Europe, the financial centers were mixed: Paris rose by 0.15%, Frankfurt fell by 0.10% and London by 0.15%.
Inflation slowed slightly in March in the UK, but remains above 10%, driven by food bills. Its decline is more modest than the forecasts of economists, who expected to see it fall back below the two-digit threshold.
“For the Bank of England, the need to proceed with a further rate hike at its next meeting, and probably beyond, is therefore becoming more pressing”, with “growth which seems to have held up, year in and year out”. year, at the beginning of the year” and “underlying inflation maintained by the acceleration of wages”, concludes Thomas Bauer, economist of the firm RichesFlores.
Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, remained stable at 6.2%. It is this indicator that particularly attracts the attention of central banks.
As a result of this publication, British government bond rates increased significantly: the ten-year rate rose to 3.83% against 3.75% the previous day, and the two-year rate stood at 3.76% against 3 .68% Tuesday evening.
In the United States, rates continued to rise, with the interest rate on the 10-year loan rising from 3.58% to 3.61%.
The Bank of England would not be the only one to raise its rates next month since, according to the consensus, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) should do the same to continue their fight against inflation.
Rising prices, which central banks have been tackling for more than a year, remain a concern in food and services even though headline inflation is decelerating in the United States and the euro zone.
Sales in Europe boost Heineken
The Dutch brewer Heineken reported on Wednesday a net profit down slightly (3%) in the first quarter, to 403 million euros, against 417 million euros last year, but maintains its objectives and reports sales “beyond expectations” in Europe and “encouraging” in the United States. The stock rose 4.01% in Amsterdam.
Netflix wants to diversify
Netflix set out to convince the market that its transition to more varied and more finely calibrated subscriptions would be profitable in the long term. The platform gained fewer subscribers than expected by the market and the action fell by 2.91% in the first exchanges.
Relief on US regional banks
The regional bank Western Alliance, which suffered particularly in March during the banking crisis, jumped 17.75% on Wall Street after its results. Pacwest gained 6.05% and First Republic 1.86%,
American investment bank Morgan Stanley saw its net profit slip by 20% in the first quarter and its shares fell by 3.81%.
On the side of currencies and oil
The pound gained 0.19% against the dollar (at 1.2449 dollars) around 9:40 a.m. (Eastern time).
Oil prices continued to slide on Wednesday, as fears of a further hike in US interest rates, which could weigh on demand for crude, overshadow the Chinese economic recovery.
Around 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Time), a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for June delivery slid 1.69% to $83.33.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in May, dropped 1.70% to 79.49 dollars.