(Paris) The European stock markets are moving slightly lower on Wednesday and Wall Street is expected to follow the same trend, ahead of the decision of the American Federal Reserve, which should leave its rates unchanged.
In Europe, Paris fell by 0.15%, London by 0.21%, Frankfurt by 0.13% and Milan by 0.10% around 7:45 a.m. (Eastern time).
All three Wall Street indexes are heading for an opening down around 0.4% according to their futures contracts, with investors holding their breath ahead of announcements from the US Federal Reserve (Fed).
In addition to the central bank, “the Treasury’s quarterly financing announcement is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Time),” says Finalto analyst Neil Wilson, and it will outline the financing needs of the United States as well as the amount of bonds that the country intends to issue.
This “could be more important than the Fed’s decision for bonds,” he said.
At the end of its two-day meeting, the Fed’s monetary policy committee is expected to announce, at 2 p.m. (Eastern time), a status quo on its key rates, markets predict.
Deutsche Bank economists say Fed Chairman Jerome “Powell will likely reiterate that the Monetary Policy Committee may ‘proceed with caution’ in future decisions.”
“But since the last meeting, employment figures have come out strong and the underlying consumer price index (adjusted for volatile food and energy prices, editor’s note) reached its highest level in September. highest level in five months, it will therefore be interesting to see how these elements can influence the reflections” of the members of the Fed, they add.
On the bond market, the interest rates on government loans maturing ten and thirty years have particularly increased in recent weeks, the American ten-year yield has even exceeded 5% for the first time since November 2007, before falling again. slightly.
At around 7:45 a.m. EST, the interest rate on 10-year US Treasuries stood at 4.90% compared to 4.93% at Tuesday’s close.
Investors will also pay attention to the monthly private sector job gains report for October from the ADP/Stanford Lab survey.
Asos shares torn apart
The action of the online clothing sales group Asos fell by 10.45% in London after the announcement of an annual net loss multiplied by ten to almost 250 million pounds for its staggered financial year ending on September 3. Asos also saw its turnover decline by 10% year-on-year.
Orsted sinks
After the cancellation of a huge offshore wind farm project in the United States and depreciation of 3.8 billion euros, the Danish group Ørsted, specializing in renewable energies, tumbled 17.95% in Copenhagen.
Barry Callebaut: tasty results
The Swiss supplier of cocoa and chocolate preparations Barry Callebaut saw its turnover and net profit increase during its staggered 2022/2023 financial year and wants to double the size of its specialty activities as well as its activities in Asia-Pacific.
Its shares climbed 6.47% in Zurich.
On the side of oil and currencies
Oil prices were rising around 7:45 a.m. ET, still driven by geopolitical risk, even as market fears of a broader conflict erupting in the Middle East eased, ahead of the weekly release of the status of stocks in the United States.
A barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in January 2024, which is the first day of use as a reference contract, gained 1.83%, to 86.57 dollars while its American equivalent, WTI for delivery in December, gained 1.85% to 82.52 dollars.
Around 7:45 a.m. (Eastern time), the Japanese currency recovered a little and gained 0.32% to 151.20 yen per dollar, after a senior official from the Japanese Ministry of Finance assured that the government nippon remained “on alert” in the face of the yen debacle.
The euro fell 0.30% against the dollar to 1.0543 dollars per euro.