European stock markets open higher | Beursduivel.be

(ABM FN-Dow Jones) The European stock markets are heading for a higher opening on Tuesday, after gains were recorded in both Europe and Wall Street on Monday.

IG forecasts an opening gain of 54 points for the German DAX, a plus of 20 points for the French CAC 40 and a rise of 37 points for the British FTSE 100.

The Federal Reserve, the US labor market report and company results continue to dominate stock market trading, said economist Luc Aben of Van Lanschot Kempen.

“From seven to one rate cut, a maximum of two. That’s the path investors have taken since the beginning of this year for the number of expected rate cuts by the Federal Reserve,” Aben said.

“This is also reflected in the development of long-term interest rates. At the beginning of 2024, the ten-year interest rate in the US was 3.9 percent, but this has now risen to 4.5 percent. In Germany the comparable interest rate rose from 2.0 percent to 2.5 percent. We do not expect a further increase in these interest rates,” he added.

The market was confronted with a series of purchasing managers’ indices for the services sector on Monday. The eurozone’s services sector grew at a faster pace in April. The index rose from 51.5 to 53.3, the highest level in eleven months.

The individual indexes of the Member States showed a more or less identical picture. Growth continued to pick up in Germany, in France a contraction turned into growth and in Italy the growth rate decreased slightly. In Spain, growth actually picked up slightly in April.

Producer prices in the euro zone fell by 0.4 percent on a monthly basis in March, while on an annual basis there was a decline of 7.8 percent.

Company news

Insurers were on the rise on Monday. In the German DAX, Allianz rose approximately 2.0 percent. Munich Re also did good business. The share gained about 2.8 percent. In the French CAC 40, AXA rose approximately 2.4 percent and in Amsterdam ASR, NN and Aegon gained approximately 2.0 percent.

Shares of European car manufacturers were also popular on Monday, as were those of semiconductors, which were still under pressure last week.

Volkswagen rose about 1.3 percent, while Mercedes-Benz gained about 1.4 percent. Porsche recorded approximately 0.8 percent higher.

Infineon gained 2.6 percent in Frankfurt. STMicroelectronics rose 0.1 percent in Paris. ASML rose 1.3 percent, ASMI gained 0.6 percent and Besi was 1.4 percent higher.

PostNL lost 3.9 percent in Amsterdam, after disappointing quarterly figures. Sector peer Bpost fell 2.6 percent.

Supermarket chain Colruyt fell by 2.2 percent on the Belgian stock exchange. Kepler Cheuvreux started monitoring the stock with a Reduce recommendation.

Euro STOXX 50 4,956.96 (+0.7%)
STOXX Europe 600 508.22 (+0.5%)
DAX 18,175.21 (+1.0%)
CAC 40 7,996.64 (+0.5%)
FTSE 100 8,213.49 (+0.5%)
SMI 11,327.66 (+0.5%)
AEX 891.13 (+0.4%)
BEL 20 3,929.00 (+0.4%)
FTSE MIB 33,986.90 (+1.1%)
IBEX 35 10,917.50 (+0.6%)

US STOCKS

According to the American futures, Wall Street opens mainly higher on Tuesday, but without major price movements.

The American stock markets closed higher on Monday on hopes of interest rate cuts by the Fed.

“The cooling of the labor market increases hopes for interest rate cuts by the Fed. As mentioned earlier, postponement does not have to mean cancellation,” said economist Luc Aben of Van Lanschot Kempen.

“The Fed is not in a position to cut rates immediately, but could do so slightly sooner than thought early last week,” Swissquote Bank said.

Richmond Fed Chairman Thomas Barkin said on Monday that with a solid labor market and resilient economy, the US central bank is in a position to take a wait-and-see approach. He also believes that the full impact of higher interest rates has yet to make its way into the economy.

He said he is optimistic that the Fed’s current restrictive policy can eventually bring inflation back to the Fed’s two percent target.

The focus will shift this week to the corporate figures of Walt Disney, among others, on Tuesday and Uber and Airbnb on Wednesday.

June crude oil futures closed $0.37, or 0.47 percent, higher at $78.48 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.

On a macroeconomic level, only consumer credit is on the agenda in the US on Tuesday.

Company news

Tyson Foods fell approximately 6.2 percent. The meat producer achieved a better-than-expected profit in the second quarter of its current financial year, while turnover was slightly below consensus. The improvement in the branch that makes chicken products was striking. This resulted in a profit at operational level, compared to a loss a year earlier.

Berkshire Hathaway reduced its stake in Apple in the first quarter, while operating profit rose. This was evident on Saturday from the results of Warren Buffett’s investment company, which also held its annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.

Berkshire owned 905 million Apple shares at the end of 2023. At the end of the first quarter this was still 790 million. Buffett said Saturday that it is “very likely” that Apple will still be Berkshire’s largest investment by the end of the year.

Per Class A share, Berkshire’s first-quarter profit rose 40 percent year-over-year to $7,796. According to FactSet, analysts expected $6,702. The share gained about 0.6 percent.

Apple, which closed 6 percent higher on Friday after better-than-expected quarterly figures and the announcement of a major share buyback program on Thursday, fell approximately 0.9 percent on Monday.

Later in the week it will be the turn of Disney, Nikola, Lyft, stock market debutant Reddit, Uber and Beyond Meat, among others.

Shares of Perficient rose approximately 52.4 percent on Monday, after it was announced that the digital consultancy company will be acquired by EQT for $3 billion.

Li Auto’s US listing rose about 4.0 percent on Monday after the Chinese electric vehicle maker reported strong orders for its low-cost model. Sector peer Nio was approximately 2.4 percent higher. Xpeng fell 0.7 percent. Tesla gained about 1.8 percent.

S&P 500 index 5,180.74 (+1.0%)
Dow Jones index 38,852.27 (+0.5%)
Nasdaq Composite 16,349.25 (+1.2%)

ASIA

The Asian stock markets were on balance lower on Tuesday, but the Japanese Nikkei index did gain after this stock market was closed on Monday.

Nikkei 225 38,804.39(+1.5%)
Shanghai Composite 3,136.62 (-0.1%)
Hang Seng 18,420.38 (-0.9%)

CURRENCIES

The euro/dollar traded at 1.0764. When the American stock exchanges closed on Monday, the currency pair was still trading at 1.0768 and when the European stock exchanges closed there was still a position of 1.0776 on the boards.
USD/JPY Yen 154.46

EUR/USD Euro 1.0764
EUR/JPY Yen 166.27

MACRO AGENDA:
00:30 Services Purchasing Managers Index – April (Jap)
06:30 Inflation – April (NL)
06:30 Reserve Bank of Australia – Interest rate decision (Aus)
08:00 Factory orders – March (Dld)
08:00 Trade balance – March (Dld)
11:00 Retail sales – March (eur)
9:00 PM Consumer Credit – March (US)

COMPANY NEWS:
07:00 Infineon – Second quarter figures (Dld)
07:00 UBS – First quarter figures (Zwi)
07:00 UniCredit – First quarter figures (Ita)
07:00 Zalando – First quarter figures (Dld)
08:00 BP – First quarter figures (UK)
13:00 Disney – Second quarter figures (US)
13:00 Nikola – First quarter figures (US)
10:00 PM Lyft – First Quarter Numbers (US)
10:00 PM Reddit – First quarter figures (US)

Source: ABM Financial News

ABM Financial News is a supplier of stock market news, video and data, both for real-time trading platforms and dealing rooms and for online and offline media publications. The information in this article is not intended as professional investment advice or as a recommendation to make certain investments.