(Paris) After a catastrophic first half for the markets, the world stock markets moved rather downward on Friday, still concerned about the risk of recession.
Posted at 8:44 a.m.
European indices opened sharply lower, before stabilizing. Around 8:05 a.m., Paris (-0.01%) was stable when London lost 0.22%, Frankfurt 0.16% and Milan 0.19%.
In Asia, Shanghai and Tokyo lost ground, while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange remained closed for the 25e anniversary of the return of the territory to China by the United Kingdom.
The New York Stock Exchange was heading for an opening down from 0.42% for the S&P 500 to 0.59% for the Dow Jones. On Thursday, the US indices lost between 0.8% and 1.3%, and over the first six months of the year the losses are catastrophic.
For the S&P 500, it was the worst start to the year since 1970, with a fall of more than 20%.
“The mood of the markets remains subject to the same old worries about inflation and recession,” commented Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson.
Regarding the euro zone, the latest figures revealed an inflation rate at a new record in June, at 8.6% over one year, now fueled by a surge in food prices, in addition to energy.
In Poland, inflation even reached 15.6% over one year in June.
The will of the central banks to fight against this galloping inflation, to the detriment of the economic activity, gave cold sweats to the investors and caused a fall of the financial markets in the first semester.
In order to calm the overheating of the economy, the monetary institutions are proceeding, or will proceed, with increases in their key rates, which will have the effect of increasing the cost of credit both for companies, but also for households. and the states.
The US Federal Reserve “should remain as aggressive as necessary until it sees a significant and persistent slowdown in inflation,” warns Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote.
The latest statistics showing a still very high price increase in the United States and in European countries, as well as the beginning of a slowdown in economic activity, point in the direction of a scenario of recession, as currently anticipated by the markets.
The manufacturing activity indices for the United States and the euro zone will be published this Friday during the day.
Safe havens continued to be popular on Friday. The dollar rose 1.13% against the pound to 0.8304 pounds to the dollar.
Government bonds were also in demand, which depressed their yields. That of the ten-year American debt lost seven basis points.
Siemens depreciates
The German industrial group Siemens will record 2.8 billion euros in depreciation in its third quarter results due to the heavy fall in the shares of its former subsidiary Siemens Energy in difficulty. The action of the parent company lost 1.23% while the subsidiary gained 2.86% in Frankfurt.
On the side of oil and bitcoin
Oil prices were picking up again, supported by production outages in Libya and Ecuador, despite OPEC+ renewing its marginal increase in production volume for August.
By 8 a.m., North Sea Brent crude for September delivery rose 2.80% to $112.05. The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), due in August, gained 2.76%, to 108.69 dollars.
Bitcoin rebounded 2.43% to $19,190, after briefly climbing back above the $20,000 mark. June was the worst month in cryptocurrency history with a tumble of over 40%.