After a sharply lower opening, the trend was reversed almost everywhere: Frankfurt took 0.59%, Milan 0.14%, but Paris fell 0.26%. In Zurich, the SMI eroded 0.06%.
The markets were nervous and regularly changed trend on Monday, on the eve of a long-awaited meeting of the American Central Bank which should again sharply raise its interest rates.
Oscillating between green and red since the opening, Wall Street was down around 3:50 p.m. GMT: the Dow Jones fell by 0.08%, the S&P 500 by 0.15% and the Nasdaq by 0.23% around 3:55 p.m. GMT.
In Europe, after a sharply lower opening, the trend was reversed almost everywhere: Frankfurt took 0.59%, Milan 0.14%, but Paris fell 0.26%. In Zurich, the SMI eroded 0.06%.
The London Stock Exchange was closed on Monday, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
For market operators, the main event of the week must be the announcement on Wednesday of the decision of the monetary policy committee of the Fed, the central bank of the United States, at the end of a meeting of two days.
“The markets should remain under pressure at the beginning of the week, then during the day of the Fed, the investors could try to make rebound the markets”, observes Vincent Boy, analyst of IG France.
For analysts, the Fed has the choice between a third consecutive increase of 75 basis points in its key rate or to go even further, with 100 basis points in one go in order to bring down inflation, which is still very high. in the United States (8.3% in August over one year), and which did not slow down as much as expected last month.
“The Stock Exchange is currently grappling with a doubly toxic cocktail. As the economy continues to weaken, central banks must do what they can to contain stubborn inflation. Avoiding a recession turns out to be a difficult task, it seems almost impossible,” said Konstantin Oldenburger, analyst at CMC Markets.
The bond market was also gearing up for the Fed meeting, with government rates continuing to rise. The rate on the American 2-year loan, the most sensitive to monetary policy, rose to a level very close to 4% (3.94%), the highest since 2007. The American 10-year also came close to 3, 5% around 3:45 p.m. GMT.
A sign of investor risk aversion, bitcoin fell 3.01% to 19,130 dollars, after hitting 18,873 dollars, the lowest since mid-June.
The expected strength in Fed action continued to support the dollar against other currencies. The euro fell 0.12% against the dollar, to 1.0004 dollars, and the pound sterling fell 0.16% (to 1.1402 dollars) around 3:50 p.m. GMT.
Daimler Truck challenges Tesla
The German group Daimler Truck (+2.24% in Frankfurt), the world leader in heavy goods vehicles, presented its first all-electric truck on Sunday with a useful capacity of 40 tonnes, outpacing its American competitor Tesla (+1.30 % on Wall Street) which is struggling to launch its own.
The eActros, with a range of around 500 kilometers on a single battery charge, should be ready for series production in 2024, Daimler Truck said.
Porsche should pay off big
German automaker Volkswagen plans to IPO its subsidiary Porsche on September 29 and is aiming for a valuation of between 70 billion and 75 billion euros, which would make it one of the largest listings in Europe in recent years. After a positive start to the session, the title of Volkswagen took 1.06%, while that of the Porsche SE holding company, which mainly owns Volkswagen, gained 3.53% in Frankfurt.
On the energy side
The heightened risk of a global economic recession has pushed oil prices down.
Around 3:35 p.m. GMT, the barrel of American WTI, for delivery in October, fell by 0.43% to 84.76 dollars and that of Brent from the North Sea, due in November, by 0.16% to 91.20 dollars.
European natural gas fell 6.33% to 176 euros per megawatt hour.