FRANKFURT (Dow Jones) – Europe’s stock markets recovered from their lows by midday on Friday and were only just in the red. The widely followed purchasing managers’ indices for France, Germany and the Eurozone hardly move share prices. The DAX lost 0.1 percent to 15,558 points and is therefore trading close to the 200-day line, which is important from a technical perspective and which many investors and trading models use as a guide. The Euro-Stoxx-50 fell 0.2 percent to 4,206, the euro was little changed at $ 1.0640.
The recent significant rise in market interest rates continues to put some pressure on share prices, triggered by statements from the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England that key interest rates are likely to remain elevated for a longer period of time. Although the Japanese central bank has now confirmed its ultra-expansionary course, it continues to occupy a special position in global central bank policy. The yen still reacts to this with a small setback.
Purchasing manager data is very different
The purchasing managers’ indices from France and Germany developed very inconsistently in September. While in France they disappointed, sliding even deeper into contraction territory and missing expectations, they increased in Germany, almost reaching expansion zone in the service sector.
“With the rise in purchasing managers’ indices, the economic outlook is brightening somewhat,” say Helaba’s market strategists. However, the growth threshold has not yet been overcome, but a bottoming out in the industry should not be ruled out.
Macro strategist Elmar Völker from LBBW expressed a similar opinion: “The economic downturn will continue in September. But the service sector is providing a ray of hope. It would certainly be premature to speak of a trend reversal to the positive. In particular, the mood in industry remains extremely gloomy. Both the significant increase in oil prices and the ECB’s renewed key interest rate increase may have recently contributed to this.”
With regard to the positioning of investors, they are likely to position themselves more defensively in a downward trend. Cyclical stocks are therefore likely to be avoided. It is therefore not surprising that UBS analysts have lowered the price target for BASF (-0.8% to 43.12 euros) to 37 from 40 euros and continue to recommend the shares as a sell.
Price-moving company news is rare. Sanofi expects a negative impact on profits and sales in the third quarter as a result of unfavorable exchange rates. The share price fell by a moderate 0.3 percent.
Movement in the telecom sector
Meanwhile, the 15 percent decline at Telekom Austria is due to the spin-off of the Euro Telesites radio tower business. The share started on the stock exchange on Friday at 4.31 euros and is now trading at 4.49 euros.
Vodafone gains 0.7 percent. According to a market participant, the background is a circular report in the Spanish business newspaper Expansion, according to which the British TMT investor Zegona is seeking financing for Vodafone’s Spanish business. This should involve a 50 percent share, which would correspond to a value of more than 5 billion euros. Vodafone announced in the spring that it would examine strategic options for its Spanish business. Zegona has since confirmed that it is in talks with Vodafone about a possible takeover of the Spanish business.
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Stock index last +/-% absolute +/-% YTD
Euro Stoxx 50 4,207.75 -0.1% -4.84 +10.9%
Stoxx-50 3,957.53 +0.0% 1.88 +8.4%
DAX 15,565.53 -0.0% -6.33 +11.8%
MDAX 26,553.77 -0.1% -21.66 +5.7%
TecDAX 3,016.68 +0.3% 8.39 +3.3%
SDAX 12,912.13 -0.3% -44.45 +8.3%
FTSE 7,731.61 +0.7% 52.99 +3.0%
CAC 7,186.40 -0.4% -27.50 +11.0%
Bond market last absolute +/- YTD
German ten-year return 2.73 -0.00 +0.16
US ten-year yield 4.48 -0.01 +0.60
FOREX last +/- % Fri, 8:30 Thu, 17:20 % YTD
EUR/USD 1.0637 -0.2% 1.0653 1.0660 -0.6%
EUR/JPY 157.67 +0.2% 157.79 157.11 +12.3%
EUR/CHF 0.9643 +0.0% 0.9639 0.9626 -2.6%
EUR/GBP 0.8684 +0.2% 0.8675 0.8670 -1.9%
USD/JPY 148.22 +0.4% 148.15 147.40 +13.0%
GBP/USD 1.2248 -0.4% 1.2279 1.2297 +1.3%
USD/CNH (Offshore) 7.3047 -0.1% 7.3022 7.3115 +5.4%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 26,593.08 -0.1% 26,657.90 26,550.63 +60.2%
CRUDE OIL most recently VT-Settlem. +/-% +/- USD% YTD
WTI/Nymex 90.54 89.63 +1.0% +0.91 +16.4%
Brent/ICE 94.17 93.30 +0.9% +0.87 +14.7%
GAS VT Settlem. +/- EUR
Dutch TTF 39.40 39.11 +0.7% +0.29 -52.5%
METALS last day previous +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (spot) 1,924.73 1,919.98 +0.2% +4.75 +5.5%
Silver (spot) 23.66 23.43 +1.0% +0.24 -1.3%
Platinum (spot) 933.55 924.00 +1.0% +9.55 -12.6%
Copper future 3.71 3.67 +1.1% +0.04 -3.0%
YTD based on the previous day’s closing level
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DJG/mpt/err
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 22, 2023 07:01 ET (11:01 GMT)