Frankfurt closed up 0.74%, Paris 0.14% and London 0.47%. Milan loose 0.49% in the last exchanges and Zurich yields 0.24%.
Global stock markets were up on Friday, bolstered by the recovery in US consumer confidence in August, reassuring news that comes on top of encouraging inflation figures.
The New York indices were largely in the green around 3:50 p.m. GMT. The Dow Jones took 0.61%, the S&P 500 0.84% and the Nasdaq 1.13%, driven in particular by tech mega-caps such as Alphabet (+0.96%), Tesla (+2.69 %), Apple (+1.39%).
European markets closed slightly higher: Frankfurt gained 0.74%, Paris 0.14% and London 0.47%. Milan lost 0.49% in the last exchanges. In Zurich, the SMI lost 0.24%.
“The resilience of US markets may be helping here, with falling inflation moderating expectations of the Fed’s rate hike policy being as aggressive as expected,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
Consumer confidence picked up more than expected in August in the United States, due to the improving outlook on the inflation front, which is providing relief to low-income households, according to the preliminary estimate published on Friday by the ‘University of Michigan. Consumer confidence hit an all-time low in June.
Earlier in the week, the PPI index of wholesale prices in the United States had been announced to have fallen by 0.5% in July compared to June, confirming the trend given by the announcement of the slowdown in US inflation. , all the same by 8.5% over one year in July.
The markets still seem to be betting that the US central bank (Fed) will ease the hike in its key rates following the publication of these figures.
But “it’s a risk because it’s not necessarily what the Fed says through the voice of its members but also during the last meetings”, notes Andrea Tuéni analyst at Saxo Bank.
“These data are not able to make the Fed change course, even if they reduce the pressure on the economy a little”, abounds Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda.
The Federal Reserve has carried out several rate hikes in recent months and does not intend to stop any time soon, with the aim of bringing inflation back to around 2%, a far cry from July’s 8.5%.
On the European side, a drop in inflation “seems difficult to envisage, energy prices being much more expensive there than in the United States”, also underlines Michael Hewson.
On the oil and gas side
The Dutch TTF, the benchmark for natural gas in Europe, was hovering around 205 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Friday around 3:50 p.m. GMT. It has jumped nearly 190% since the start of the year, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The price of oil fell on Friday. Brent crude from the North Sea for October delivery fell 136% to $98.25 a barrel. A barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery fell 2.02% to 92.40 dollars.
Boosted health
The British pharmaceutical giant GSK (+ 3.57%) and its now independent former healthcare branch Haleon (+ 2.18%) rebounded following their plunges the day before, following reassuring Friday on the legal risks linked to a drug withdrawn from as of 2019, Zantac, used for heartburn.
It was manufactured and marketed by several laboratories including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the French Sanofi (+0.84%) which had also tumbled on Thursday.
The American Pfizer rose 2.70% following also suffering losses on Thursday.
On the currency side
The euro lost ground Friday once morest the dollar, analysts fearing that the euro zone might fall into recession due to the gas crisis.
Around 3:50 p.m. GMT, the euro lost 0.62% to 1.0257 dollars.
Bitcoin lost 0.85% to $24,010.
