(Paris) Western stock markets evolved differently on Tuesday on the return from the extended Christmas holiday weekend in a session with reduced trading volumes and marked by the reopening of China.
The European indices took 0.70% in Paris and 0.30% in Frankfurt. The Milanese place hesitated more (-0.09%) and that of London remained closed.
On Wall Street, the trend was mixed between the Dow Jones index up 0.52% and the NASDAQ index down 0.82%, around 12:10 p.m. EST.
China will end mandatory quarantines on arrival in the country on January 8, the last vestige of its strict “zero COVID-19” health policy that isolated the country for nearly three years.
For several weeks, the authorities had shown signs in this direction, but the outbreak of contamination made investors doubt the sustainability of the reopening movement.
“The market wants to believe that the reopening of China will have a positive impact on global growth”, with however the “negative corollary, the relaunch of the rising commodity/inflation spiral”, indicates Frédéric Rozier portfolio manager at Mirabaud France .
On the sovereign debt market, European rates continued to rise for the past month. The French 10-year yield was 2.93% and the German 10-year 2.38%. That of the United States rose to 3.84%.
News from Beijing that quarantines are about to end has prompted a jump in online searches for outbound flights, state media reported.
It also boosted oil prices. The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in February 2023 took 1.86%, to 85.48 dollars, and that of American WTI for the same month rose by 1.71%, to 80.92 dollars, around 11:55 a.m. (Eastern time).
In addition, Russia will ban from 1er February the sale of its oil to foreign countries that use the cap on the price of Russian black gold, set at the beginning of December at 60 dollars per barrel by the EU, the G7 and Australia.
“The delivery of Russian oil and oil products to foreign legal entities and other individuals is prohibited” if they use the ceiling price, is it written in a decree signed Tuesday by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The decree specifies that this measure is planned for a period of five months, “until 1er July 2023”.
Luxury and tourism sought after
Stocks linked to the tourism and luxury sector benefited from the reopening of China.
Air-France-KLM (+1.30%) and Lufthansa (+1.59%) climbed, in the wake of Japanese airlines ANA Holdings (+1.45%) and Japan Airlines (+2.2%) .
On the other hand in the United States, where a giant storm blocked air transport during this holiday season, Southwest Airlines, one of the companies which had to cancel the most flights during the Christmas weekend, lost 4.81% around 12 p.m. (Eastern time).
Luxury stocks, including the number one in the sector LVMH (+2.43%), Kering (+1.39%) and Hermès (+2.04%), were highly sought after.
Isolated semiconductors
The semiconductor sector was in bad shape in New York, with Nvidia falling 4.46% around 12 p.m. EST. In Paris, STMicroelectronics lost 1.07%.
On the currency side
The euro gleaned 0.13% to 1.0651 dollars.
Bitcoin was down 0.38% at $16,768.