European stock markets open in green

(ABM FN-Dow Jones) The European stock markets are heading for a higher opening on Friday.

IG predicts an opening gain of 53 points for the German DAX and a plus of 23 points for the French CAC 40. The British FTSE looks to open 41 points higher.

Stock markets in Europe ended higher on Thursday after a fairly quiet Ascension Day.

In London, the FTSE 100 tightened its record after the Bank of England clearly hinted at an upcoming interest rate cut in its interest rate decision.

“We need to see more evidence that inflation remains low before we can cut rates,” Andrew Bailey, chairman of the BoE, said Thursday, explaining the interest rate decision. “I’m optimistic that things are going in the right direction.”

There was a clear shift towards a more dovish position, as two members of the policy committee voted in favor of a 25 basis point rate cut, while seven voted in favor of maintaining it. Analysts had expected only one negative vote.

“The Bank of England is undoubtedly becoming more optimistic, but is keeping its options open in light of the uncertainty surrounding inflation rates in the near future. We still expect the first rate cut to take place in August,” ING said.

On a macroeconomic level, it was announced on Thursday that Chinese exports increased more than expected in April, by 1.5 percent, as did imports, which increased by 8.4 percent.

Company news

Siemens Energy led the German DAX, with a gain of 3.3 percent. RWE gained 2.5 percent. Zalando was bottom in Frankfurt, with a loss of 2.9 percent.

Furthermore, the shares of European automakers did well, as did oil shares.

In Paris, Carrefour led with a plus of 2.3 percent. Accor was by far the biggest decliner in the CAC 40, with a loss of 2.4 percent.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria launched a hostile bid for Banco Sabadell on Thursday, after Sabadell rejected BBVA’s approach earlier this week. Sabadell shares rose 3.2 percent. BBVA fell 6.7 percent, pushing the Madrid stock exchange into the red.

BE Semiconductor Industries has received an order for 26 hybrid bonding systems. Besi did not report who gave the order. Besi also did not want to say how much was involved in the assignment. The share rose 3.6 percent in Amsterdam, while the AEX tightened its record, well above 900 points.

The British TV channel ITV maintained its annual outlook, even though the quarterly figures were below expectations. The outlook for advertising revenue remained on the optimistic side with an expected growth of 12 percent. The consensus has so far been at a plus of only 5 percent. The share price rose 3.0 percent.

Telefonica performed better than expected in the first three months of the year and maintained its outlook for 2024. The Telefonica share is receiving considerable support from the Spanish state-owned company SEPI, which is increasing its stake in the telecom company. On May 3, the stake was 7.08 percent and it is expected that this will increase to 10.0 percent. The price fell 0.7 percent.

Nexi has maintained its outlook for the whole of this year, after revenue and profit exceeded expectations in the first quarter. The Italian payments company maintained the outlook and announced a share buyback program of 500 million euros. The price rose 6.4 percent.

In Brussels, heavyweight Argenx fell more than 5 percent after announcing results and stopping a research program. The Bel20 also suffered considerably as a result.

Euro STOXX 50 5,054.41 (+0.3%)
STOXX Europe 600 516.77 (+0.2%)
DAX 18,686.60 (+1.0%)
CAC 40 8,187.65 (+0.7%)
FTSE 100 8,381.35 (+0.3%)
SMI 11,602.21 (+0.8%)
AEX 904.21 (+0.5%)
BEL 20 3,985.40 (-0.8%)
FTSE MIB 34,339.32 (+0.6%)
IBEX 35 11,050.10 (-0.9%)

US STOCKS

Wall Street is looking for a positive opening on Friday.

The American stock markets ended higher on Thursday and are again closer to their records.

On a macroeconomic level, it was announced that the number of new applications for unemployment benefits in the United States rose much faster than expected last week. The number of new applications for unemployment benefits amounted to 231,000, or an increase of 22,000. The expectation was 214,000 new applications.

This could indicate increasing weakness in the US labor market, which investors could see as good news, according to Naeem Aslam of Zaye Capital Markets, as it may force the Fed to start cutting rates sooner rather than later.

Investors already started the week hopeful about the likelihood of interest rate cuts, following last week’s weak US jobs report.

However, several Federal Reserve directors tempered those expectations in recent days and bond yields rose slightly again. After Fed director Neel Kashkari indicated on Tuesday that he would not completely rule out an interest rate increase, his colleague Susan Collins weighed in on Wednesday by emphasizing that the current interest rate policy will remain unchanged for a longer period of time until there are signals that inflation is rising. sustainably towards 2.0 percent.

More than 91 percent of the market currently expects no change in policy in June, while the chance of an interest rate cut in July is estimated at less than 10 percent, said investment specialist Kevin Verstraete of online broker Lynx.

The US ten-year yield rose earlier in the day, but fell by 2 basis points to 4.46 percent on Thursday evening. The two-year variant fell slightly to 4.82 percent.

Oil prices rose further on Thursday after the Energy Information Administration announced a day earlier that US oil inventories fell by 1.4 million barrels last week. A slight increase was expected.

However, Mizuho Securities’ Robert Yawger warns that the market will always return to fundamentals, “and they are not good right now,” the analyst said.

Company news

Shares of Beyond Meat fell 14.4 percent after the meat substitute producer’s second-quarter outlook disappointed. Holiday home rental company Airbnb’s outlook was also below market expectations. The share lost 6.9 percent.

Arm’s US listing lost 2.3 percent on Thursday. The British chip manufacturer also presented a disappointing outlook for the market.

Cinema chain AMC Entertainment released final figures for the first quarter after trading hours on Wednesday, in which the loss decreased. The stock fell 4.1 percent. Analysts are concerned about the company’s debt mountain.

SolarEdge Technologies, which develops battery systems, fell 8.5 percent on Thursday after widening losses in the first quarter. The turnover forecast for the second quarter also disappointed.

Tech company AppLovin came with convincing results, which yielded a price gain of 14.5 percent.

Warner Bros. Discovery reported a larger-than-expected loss in the past quarter, but the share still rose 3.1 percent, possibly due to the news that the entertainment conglomerate will collaborate with Disney on streaming services.

Shares of telecom company US Cellular shot up nearly 28 percent on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that peers T-Mobile US and Verizon Communications are both separately in talks to split up US Cellular. Shares of Telephone & Data Systems, which owns 80 percent of US Cellular, also rose 28 percent. T-Mobile US and Verizon gained around one percent.

S&P 500 index 5,214.08 (+0.5%)
Dow Jones index 39,387.76 (+0.9%)
Nasdaq Composite 16,346.26 (+0.3%)

ASIA

The Asian stock markets were mostly higher on Friday.

Nikkei 225 38,156.94 (+0.2%)
Shanghai Composite 3,147.25 (-0.2%)
Hang Seng 18,859.60 (+1.7%)

CURRENCIES

The euro/dollar was trading at 1.0775 this morning. On Thursday evening the currency pair was trading at 1.0782.

USD/JPY Yen 155.69
EUR/USD Euro 1.0775
EUR/JPY Yen 167.76

MACRO AGENDA:
08:00 Economic growth – First quarter vlpg (UK)
08:00 Trade balance – March (UK)
08:00 Industrial Production – March (UK)
4:00 PM Consumer Confidence Michigan – May vlpg (US)

COMPANY NEWS:
– No agenda items

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.