(Paris) European stock markets were rather cautious on Friday in view of a particularly busy week on the economic and monetary front, but Wall Street took advantage of indicators that presage a moderate slowdown in the American economy.
The European markets closed as they had started, namely without much variation in Paris (+0.02%), Frankfurt (+0.11%) and London (+0.05%). Over the week, the indices continued to advance, as they have done since the beginning of the year.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones rose 0.08%, the NASDAQ index gained 0.95%, and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.25%.
On Thursday, the first estimate of US growth, which came out stronger than expected in the fourth quarter, was welcomed by the markets.
On Friday, they received new positive data from the inflation front, with the PCE price index rising just 0.1% in December month-on-month, even though economists were calling it stable.
In terms of prices, investors were more focused on the 0.3% rise in the core index excluding food and energy (+0.3%), which was in line with estimates.
Operators also focused their attention on another figure from the Commerce Department’s report, which concerned consumption, which contracted by 0.2% over one month, more than the 0.1% expected.
An ebb that shows that “consumers are beginning to retreat and become increasingly reluctant to dip into the savings surplus accumulated during the pandemic and their cash flow to finance their current expenses”, comments Mickey Levy, economist at Berenberg.
Investors hope that these data will influence the US Federal Reserve (Fed), which has been pursuing a policy of interest rate hikes since March in its fight against inflation, which it wants to bring back to around 2%.
“Resilient growth, gradual deceleration of inflation and robustness of the labor market should lead the Federal Reserve to maintain the course of its restrictive monetary policy while adopting a much more measured pace than in 2022”, comments Alexandre Perricard, managing director of Uzes Gestion.
The market, however, expects the Fed, but also the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to raise their key interest rates again in their inflation-fighting mandate after their meetings next week. .
Very cautious Intel
US semiconductor giant Intel on Thursday reported results that were significantly below expectations, amid slowing demand for electronic chips, and issued a very cautious outlook for the first quarter of 2023. The stock fell 6, 41% on Wall Street.
American Express optimistic for 2023
The credit card specialist has announced that it expects revenue growth of between 15% and 17% in 2023 and forecasts net profit higher than analysts’ forecasts so far.
He was wanted on Friday (+ 10.54%), despite a quarterly result and profit below expectations.
Investors also welcomed the results of Visa (+2.99% to 231.44 dollars), above their expectations, which were driven by the acceleration of tourism and travel abroad.
In general, the operators saw in the comments of the leaders of the two companies something to reassure themselves about the health of the American consumer.
On the side of oil and currencies
Oil prices, rising in the first part of the session, finally retreated, as investors were tempted to take their profits as the end of January approached, which was a good month for crude prices.
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March fell 0.92% to 86.66 dollars and its American equivalent, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery the same month, fell by 1.64 % at $79.68.
The euro fell 0.22% to 1.0868 dollars and the pound 0.07% to 1.2399 dollars.