by Claude Chendjou
PARIS (Reuters) – European stock markets ended lower on Tuesday, weighed down by sectors sensitive to economic developments, while the trend on Wall Street was cautious mid-session for two of the three indexes, with the Nasdaq supported by Nvidia.
In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 1.29% to 7,209.75 points. The German Dax lost 0.27 per cent. The UK Footsie fell 1.38% after a three-day spring bank holiday-related shutdown.
The EuroStoxx 50 index fell by 0.66% and the FTSEurofirst 300 by 1.01%. The Stoxx 600, which is near a two-month high, lost 0.92%.
At the time of the close in Europe, the Dow Jones was down 0.42%, but the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 0.10% and the Nasdaq 0.6% after three days of closure also due to “Memorial Day”.
Investors learned Sunday of a compromise on the US debt between Democrats and Republicans, which still needs congressional approval by June 5. This text will be considered this Tuesday at 19:00 GMT by the House Rules Committee.
“The market is cautiously pricing in a deal,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital.
In addition to questions about this deal, a number of economic indicators scheduled for this week in the US and Europe, especially related to PMIs, inflation and above all the monthly US employment report, are a wait-and-see attitude.
BY WALL STREET
Nvidia, up 5.75%, became the first semiconductor company to cross the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold on Tuesday. The group is driven by the announcement of several technological products and partnerships in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
In the aftermath, Intel takes 2.86 per cent.
VALUES IN EUROPE
On the European listing, the consumer segments (-2.4%), energy (-2.14%) and banks (-1.61%) were among the sharpest decliners, while the defensive segments such as utilities (+0.76%) and real estate (+0.76%) +0.22%) offered some support to the indices.
The technology division (+0.42%) was driven by Nvidia, which notably enabled Infineon to take 1.34% and STMicroelectronics 1.16%.
Unilever lost 2.97% on the announcement of Tuesday’s departure of chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly, while Nestle lost 3.32% following the resignation of its chief financial officer Francois-Xavier Rogers.
DAILY INDICATORS
Eurozone economic sentiment worsened to 96.5 this month from 99.3 the previous month, while consumer confidence in the currency bloc was confirmed at -17.4 in May.
Growth in business loans in the euro area slowed again in April to +4.6% over a year against +5.2% the previous month.
CHANGES
The dollar, which recently hit a ten-week high against a basket of benchmark currencies, is taking a breather (-0.06%).
The euro, which fell the previous day to a two-month low, rose to $1.072 (+0.14%).
Pound sterling is shown at 1.2399 dollars (+0.39%).
RATE
Eurozone government bond yields fell after a sharper-than-expected slowdown in May inflation in Spain (+2.9% year-on-year), ahead of the release of bloc-wide data on Thursday. .
The ten-year German Bund rate ended with approx. seven basis points to 2.36%, and the two-year yield fell 7.6 points to 2.84%.
In the US, the hope of an agreement in Congress to raise the US debt ceiling is causing an easing of interest rates: yields on the 10-year and two-year Treasuries are down 11.6 basis points to 3.7038%, and 8.7 points to 4.4977%, respectively .
OIL
Uncertainty over new OPEC+ production quotas ahead of Sunday’s meeting weighs on oil prices: Brent fell 4.23% to $73.81 a barrel. barrel and WTI 4.11% at $69.68.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
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