(Paris) World stock markets rejoiced on Tuesday at the reopening of China, good news in a sparse economic news in this last week of the year.
The European stock markets were moving in the green: up 0.73% in Paris, 0.31% in Frankfurt around 9:45 a.m. (Eastern time). The London Stock Exchange remained closed.
After the long Christmas weekend, Wall Street resumed in disorganized order: the Dow Jones advanced by 0.15%, the NASDAQ lost 0.42% a few minutes after the opening.
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 been showing signs in this direction, but the outbreak of contamination made investors doubt the sustainability of the reopening movement.
The Health Commission, which acts as a ministry, said on Monday it no longer considers COVID-19 a “pneumonia”, but a less dangerous “contagious” disease, which no longer justifies quarantines.
The news prompted a jump in online searches for outbound flights, state media reported.
These announcements “give rise to hopes of additional easing”, comments Andreas Lipkow, independent expert. However, the “very low” volume of transactions leads him to put the day’s gains into perspective, which must “be treated with caution”.
According to him, “the first two quarters of the coming year should again be characterized by uncertainty and high volatility in the stock markets”.
On the bond market, European rates continued their current soaring for a month. The French 10-year yield (3.04%) and the German 10-year yield (2.50%) were up sharply and close to their highest level during the year’s session. That of the United States, rose more slightly Tuesday to 3.80%, far from its highest annual.
Luxury and tourism sought after
Stocks linked to the tourism and luxury sector benefited from the reopening of China.
In the wake of Japanese airlines ANA Holdings (+1.45%) and Japan Airlines (+2.2%), Air-France-KLM (+2.29%) and Lufthansa (+1.26%) climbed towards 9:35 a.m. (Eastern time).
Luxury stocks, including the world leader in the sector LVMH (+2.34%), Kering (+1.70%), Hermès (+2.15%), Richemont (+3.13%) and even Moncler (+3.30%) were sought.
On the side of currencies and oil
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in February 2023 took 0.68% to 84.49 dollars and that of American WTI for the same month rose by 0.48% to 79.94 dollars around 9:40 a.m. (Eastern time). ‘Is).
The euro crumbled 0.10% to 1.0627 dollars.
Bitcoin was down 0.36% at $16,770.