(Paris) European stock markets ended in scattered order on Thursday as Wall Street rebounded, hoping to see the end of monetary tightening approaching.
London fell 0.89% after the Bank of England decided to hike its rate 0.25 percentage points to 4.25%, a high since late 2008.
The Zurich market fell by 0.59% after the decision of the Swiss National Bank, which worked to secure the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by its rival UBS this weekend, to raise its rate from 0, 50 percentage points.
On the other hand, Paris (+0.11%) and Frankfurt (-0.04%) ended without much trend.
On Wall Street, the indices rebounded after their fall the day before, helped by the weakening of the dollar and bond rates: the Dow Jones index gained 0.90%, the NASDAQ, dominated by technology, 1.79% and the S&P 500 Index 1.13% around 1 p.m. EST.
The US Federal Reserve (Fed) raised its key rate by only a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday in a context undermined by the banking crisis.
And going forward, the majority of the 18 Fed officials anticipate an additional quarter-point rate hike.
“Basically, with the 25 basis point rate hike, investors got exactly what they were hoping for,” notes Konstantin Oldenburger at CMC Markets.
Many market participants also believe that the disruptions experienced by banks since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) could help offset the need for further rate hikes.
“Stresses in the banking sector will contribute to slowing economic activity, demand, and ultimately inflation, so less action will be needed from the Fed to tighten financial conditions sufficiently,” write Tiffany. Wilding and Allison Boxer, economists at Pimco.
“As a result, the Fed is likely nearing the end of the bullish cycle,” they say.
In Europe, investors witnessed several rate hikes on Thursday.
On the bond market, government bond yields fell sharply, particularly those with short maturities, which are very sensitive to interest rates.
The Bank of England (BoE) raised its key rate by 0.25 points, mimicking the Fed and the Bank of Norway, while warning that “if the” inflationary “pressures persist, a further tightening of monetary policy will be necessary. “.
The European Central Bank decided last week to raise rates by 0.5 points, despite tensions in the banking sector.
The mega-bank born out of the forceps of the union between UBS and Credit Suisse risks posing competition problems in Switzerland, also acknowledged the president of the Swiss central bank on Thursday. But for him, there was no other solution to avoid a catastrophe.
Banks take a nosedive
Shares of Credit Suisse lost 3.61% and UBS 4.33%. The German Deutsche Bank (-3.18%), Commerzbank (-4.14%) or the French Societe Generale (-2.33%) and BNP Paribas (-2.18%) followed the same trend. The banking sector of the broader Stoxx Europe 600 index fell by 2.47%.
Rheinmetall: an armored course
The course of the defense group entered the Dax40 on Monday continues to climb (2.0%, +10.1% since Monday). The German Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday that it wanted to acquire more than 100 Boxer-type wheeled armored vehicles, manufactured by Rheinmetall.
On the side of currencies and oil
The dollar weakened against other major currencies: against the euro, the US currency lost 0.38% to 1.0898 dollars per euro after falling to 1.0930 dollars, its lowest since early February.
Around 12:50 p.m. (Eastern time), the British currency took 0.48% to 1.2327 dollars and 0.08% to 88.41 pence for one euro. Earlier, it hit its highest in nearly two months against the dollar, at $1.2344 to the pound.
Oil prices are falling: a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in May lost 0.86% to 76 dollars, while a barrel of American WTI for the same term fell by 0.85% to 70.30 dollars.