(Paris) The mood of the stock markets is rather pessimistic on Wednesday, after a rain of very mixed results and in a context still marked by fears of recession, only the results of the technological giants support the New York market.
Wall Street opened in the green, driven by a surge in Microsoft stock. The NASDAQ was up 1.03%, the S
Microsoft climbed 6.89% after posting quarterly results that were significantly better than expected on Tuesday. Its merger with the video game studio Activision Blizzard is however blocked by the British competition authority, which caused Activision to plunge by 8.21%.
In contrast, investor reaction to Alphabet’s results was more mixed (0.80%), despite net profit exceeding analysts’ expectations.
Shares of Meta (2.40%) and Amazon (3.45%), which are next on the board, were doing well.
European stock markets fell for the second day in a row, the Paris Stock Exchange, where nearly a quarter of companies have published their results since Tuesday’s close, lost 1.14%, Frankfurt 0.62%, London 0.65 % and Milan 0.94%.
After rising sharply following the banking shock in March, until reaching record highs for the French index, European equities have generally been treading water since mid-April.
Pierre Veyret, analyst at ActivTrades, notes a feeling of “risk aversion”, “as fears of a global economic slowdown and a banking crisis have resurfaced”.
On the bond market, the interest rates of States in Europe extended their declines on Tuesday, a sign of this attraction of investors for low-risk assets.
Teleperformance shares fell 13.70% on the Paris Stock Exchange after the announcement of the takeover for three billion euros of its competitor Majorel, partly with a contribution of securities.
In Paris again, Dassault Systèmes fell by 6.20% after its results which revealed a drop in its margin.
In Amsterdam, ASM International also fell nearly 10% after its results.
Boeing shares in New York were up 3.81%, despite a bigger-than-expected net loss in the first quarter, but the aircraft manufacturer confirmed its guidance for the full year.
US bank First Republic continued to slump on Wednesday (-17.77%) after its stock fell 49% on Tuesday, amid concerns over the bank’s future as customers withdrew more than 100 billion in deposits in the first quarter.
The rest of the banking sector was mixed, both in the United States (JP Morgan Chase -0.42%, Citigroup -0.52%), and in Europe (BNP Paribas -0.33%, Banco Santander -2.57 %).
In the field of health, the British GSK (-2.36%) saw its net profit fall by 17% while the turnover of the French Eurofins (2.08%) fell by 10.5% and that of the Swiss Roche (-2.71%) by 7%, the three companies highlighting the decline in their products in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the first quarter of 2022.
Oil was unable to recover after the sharp drop the day before, caused by fears about economic activity. North Sea Brent crude fell 2.17% to $79, wiping out all the gains made after some OPEC members decided to cut oil production. That of American WTI lost 1.49% to 75.92 dollars around 10 a.m. (Eastern time).
The price of natural gas in Europe was still below 40 euros per megawatt hour (38.30 euros, -3.85%).
The euro jumped 1.06% to $1.1089.
Bitcoin climbed 6.58% to $29,820, buoyed by concerns that the banking system is faltering.
