Paris lost 1.17%, Frankfurt 1.31% and Milan 0.96%, while London held up better (-0.22%) thanks to the weight of oil companies in its index. Zurich fell by 0.85%.
Western stock markets, and in particular European ones, fell back on Wednesday, penalized by the rise in the price of raw materials, gas and oil in particular, around the war in Ukraine.
The European markets ended clearly in the red. Paris lost 1.17%, Frankfurt 1.31% and Milan 0.96%, while London held up better (-0.22%) thanks to the weight of oil companies in its index. In Zurich, the SMI lost 0.85%.
Wall Street was down slightly: the Dow Jones lost 0.95%, the S&P 500 0.63% and the Nasdaq 0.25% around 4:55 p.m. GMT.
Conversely, Asian stock markets are still booming, with a 3% rise in Tokyo.
Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that Russia will no longer accept payments in dollars or euros for gas deliveries “to hostile countries”, including those in the European Union, giving the Russian authorities a week to put in place the new ruble system.
The statement caused the price of natural gas to soar: it took 13.42% to 112.00 euros per megawatt hour around 4:35 p.m. GMT on the Dutch market, which is a reference in Europe.
Oil prices also picked up: the barrel of Brent with May maturity rose 4.85% to 121.08 dollars, that of WTI with the same maturity, for which it is the first day of trading, took 4.55% at $114.24.
While the markets have rebounded sharply, erasing most of the losses that followed the invasion of Ukraine, “the uncertainty remains enormous” and limits the potential for markets to rise towards the highs of the start of the year, according to Craig Erlam, Oanda analyst.
On Thursday, one month to the day following the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Westerners will gather in Brussels for NATO, G7 and European Union summits and are expected to announce “new sanctions once morest the Russia,” according to Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to Joe Biden. They might also strengthen those that already exist.
In the bond market, interest rates were easing following their sharp rise since the beginning of the week, due to a speech by Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell, who showed determination to fight once morest inflation.
The interest rate on the 10-year US fell to 2.35%, once morest 2.38% the day before closing.
Oil and mining stand out
Stocks in the oil sector held up better to the trend, benefiting from the rise in oil prices as usual. Shell gained 3.74% and BP 4.75% in London. In Paris, TotalEnergies took 0.77%%, despite the announcement of the cessation of purchases of Russian oil or petroleum products, “at the latest at the end of 2022”. On Wall Street Exxon (+1.61%) and Occidental Petroleum (+1.48%) followed suit.
British miners were also in good shape, helped by a US-UK deal ending punitive tariffs on British steel and aluminum, which were imposed in 2018 by former President Donald Trump. BHP rose 2.91%, Glencore 2.09% and Rio Tinto 1.86%.
Adobe fall, Gamestop leap
The Adobe software group plunged 9.74% following announcing strong results for the second quarter of its fiscal year but disappointing forecasts. Other tech stocks, particularly in semiconductors, were struggling, such as Infineon (-2.31%) or ASML (-1.92%) in Europe.
Conversely, Gametop shares jumped 16% following the announcement of a share buyback by its leader Ryan Cohen.
On the currency side
Risk aversion benefited the dollar. The euro lost 0.23% once morest the greenback at 1.1003 dollars.
Bitcoin lost 1.21% to $42,095.
