(New York) Most major European stock markets ended in the green on Friday before entering the heart of the half-year earnings season next week, and the Dow Jones continued its run of gains.
Paris closed up 0.65%, London 0.23% and Milan gained 0.14%. Only Frankfurt dropped 0.17%, notably disappointed by the results of the SAP software specialist, heavyweight in the German index.
Over the week, Paris gained 0.79%, Frankfurt 0.45% and London jumped (+3.08%), driven by the slowdown in inflation in the United Kingdom.
In the United States, the Dow Jones gained 0.01%, signing a tenth positive session in a row, for the first time in nearly six years.
The Dow Jones’ all-time high for daily gains, 14 straight gains, dates back to 1896, according to figures provided by S&P Global’s Howard Silverblatt.
The NASDAQ, on the other hand, had a difficult second session, marked by profit taking after having been in orbit since the beginning of the year.
The S&P 500 eroded 0.03%.
On next week’s menu, the markets will notably be awaiting the results of Vodafone, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Shell and NatWest.
As for central banks, on Wednesday the US Federal Reserve “is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate – perhaps for the last time this year – by a quarter of a percentage point,” said Michael Hewson of CMC Markets.
“Thursday, it will be the turn of the European Central Bank to decide whether to raise rates, followed on Friday by the Bank of Japan”, continues the analyst.
On the bond market, sovereign yields eased slightly. The German 10-year rate was at 2.44%, against 2.48% at the close the previous day. The US yield for the same maturity was 3.83% versus 3.85%.
SAP down sharply
Software giant SAP fell 4.30% in Frankfurt at the close after slashing its full-year forecast for cloud revenue. Its operating profit, however, jumped nearly 30% in the second quarter (in international IFRS standards), he announced Thursday evening.
American Express disappoints
The New York group ended down sharply (-3.89%) despite a quarterly net profit above expectations.
Investors focused on the jump in provisions for bad debts, which almost tripled compared to the same period last year, a sign that the specialist in credit cards expects a deterioration in the economy.
The Dow Jones takes advantage of the rotation
The ongoing portfolio rotation has benefited several members of the index, such as Johnson & Johnson (+1.06%), whose results had seduced on Thursday, as well as the oil company Chevron (+1.46%), Procter & Gamble (+1.57%) or the Merck laboratory (+1.78%).
These big names had been treading water since the beginning of the year before beginning to attract investors looking for bargains in recent weeks.
“We see a broadening of the values which carry” the market, notes Angelo Kourkafas, of Edward Jones.
On the side of oil and currencies
US oil prices ended Friday at their highest closing level in three months, on a market increasingly convinced that Saudi Arabia and Russia will meet their commitments to reduce volumes.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for September delivery rose 1.79%, to close at 81.07 dollars.
The euro was almost stable against the greenback (-0.02%), at 1.1127 dollars.
Bitcoin was up 0.55% at $29,892.