(Paris) World markets are moving in scattered order on Thursday, a day marked by the publication of US GDP, which shows that the economy is slowing in the United States but also that inflation is still rising, with a rain of corporate results in background.
Wall Street indices were up: the tech-heavy NASDAQ gained 1.87% around 12:30 p.m. EST, boosted in particular by better-than-expected results from Meta. The Dow Jones gained 0.93% and the broader index S
In Europe, Paris ended up 0.23% and Frankfurt balanced (0.03%) but London dropped 0.27%.
In macroeconomic terms, the markets welcomed the publication of the US gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter, which appears to be very mixed.
US GDP growth slowed sharply in the first quarter and is well below analysts’ expectations. It stood at 1.1% at an annualized rate, under the effect of a drop in investment and despite the maintenance of household consumption.
Instead, analysts were expecting 2% growth in the quarter, according to the consensus published by briefing.com.
“If we take a step back on the latest inflation figures, we see that commodity prices have come down a lot but that underlying inflation is more persistent,” notes Alexandre Drabowicz, analyst at Indosuez.
After this publication, market participants believe that it is even more likely that the US central bank will increase its key rates by 0.25 percentage points next week, thus continuing its fight against inflation.
In the bond market, US debt rates are rising, especially for two-year Treasury bills, which are more sensitive to the monetary policy led by the Fed, which were tending to 4.05% around 12:05 p.m. ‘Est) against 3.95% at the close the previous day.
Another reaction, the dollar strengthened against the other main currencies. Around 12:05 p.m. (Eastern Time), the euro was down 0.20% against the greenback at $1.1018 per euro.
Meta’s (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) efforts to scale back and refocus on its core business – selling social media advertising – paid off in the first quarter with better-than-expected results, but also on Wall Street where its stock price jumped 14.25% around 12:05 a.m. EST.
“After better than expected numbers from Alphabet (3.63% on Wall Street), Microsoft (2.41%) and Meta this week, the focus will now shift to Amazon (4.10%) after the close, and hopefully they will repeat the feat of exceeding expectations,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewsonk.
“On the European market, we realize that the results of the banks are very good and that’s reassuring,” notes Alexandre Drabowicz.
In London, Barclays gained 5.32%. The British bank announced higher first-quarter profit, boosted by interest rates, and its turnover benefited from a stronger dollar.
In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank took 2.47%. Its net profit increased by 8% year-on-year and also announced new measures to reduce its costs.
In Milan, Italy’s second largest bank, UniCredit gained 3.54%. In Madrid, Spanish bank BBVA finished up 3.11%.
Oil prices were little changed by 12:05 p.m. EST. The barrel of Brent North Sea rose 0.79% to 78.31 dollars and that of American WTI took 0.86% to 74.94 dollars.
