Red Sea Trade Route Supply Difficulties Drive Oil Prices Up: Stock Market Updates

2023-12-18 15:42:12

If the stock and bond markets experienced a rather calm session on Monday, those of raw materials are in turmoil with oil prices which are climbing in the face of supply difficulties via the Red Sea trade route.

Wall Street opened higher. Around 2:45 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones gained 0.14%, the S&P 500 0.29% and the Nasdaq 0.18%. In Europe, on the other hand, Paris lost 0.36%, Frankfurt 0.46% and Milan 0.21%. London advanced 0.50%, driven by oil stocks. In the bond market, interest rates on sovereign debt did not vary much either. The yield on the United States 10-year bond was stable compared to Friday’s close at 3.95%. “The start of the week was not the most exciting, but that was to be expected given the number of major events that occurred in recent sessions and the absence of significant events today», Comments Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda. The markets largely reacted last week to announcements from central banks, notably the American Federal Reserve (Fed), whose members discussed a timetable for lowering key interest rates.

Black alert in the Red Sea

In recent weeks, Yemeni rebels, close to Iran, have increased attacks near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Africa. Oil prices climbed around 2:40 p.m. GMT, driven by concerns regarding supply difficulties via this trade route, following several global shipping giants announced that their ships would avoid the Red Sea. Among them, the Danish Maersk (+2.83% in Copenhagen), the German Hapag-Lloyd (+7% in Frankfurt), the French CMA CGM and the Italian-Swiss MSC, to which is added the British giant of BP hydrocarbons (+2.10% in London) which also announced on Monday the suspension of all transit in the Red Sea.

Around 2:40 p.m. GMT, the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in February rose 3.33% to $79.13. Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in January, gained 3.43% to $73.86.

Oil stocks followed the trend in hydrocarbon prices: Shell advanced 1.42% in London, TotalEnergies gained 1.61% in Paris, Eni gained 1.11% in Milan and Chevron rose 1.46% in New York. York.

US Steel bought for 14 billion

Nippon Steel, the largest Japanese steel group, will buy the American steelmaker US Steel for around $14.1 billion, excluding the assumption of debt, the two groups announced Monday in a press release.

In New York, US Steel shares soared more than 26% in early trading.

Iliad proposes a merger with Vodafone. The British telephone group Vodafone soared by almost 5% in London, following the proposal of the French Iliad to merge their activities in Italy in the face of strong competition in this market.

Adobe and Figma give up. The creative software giant Adobe (+2.24% in New York) and the collaborative design platform Figma announced on Monday the abandonment of their merger project, presented in September 2022 for 20 billion dollars, due to uncertainties related to regulatory approvals.

On the side of currencies and bitcoin

On the foreign exchange market, the yen fell once morest most currencies, on the eve of a monetary policy decision by the Bank of Japan (BoJ). Around 2:40 p.m. GMT, the Japanese currency lost 0.60% to 143 yen per dollar.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 0.64%. The yen is weighed down by monetary policy “ultra-accommodating» from the BoJ, going once morest the tide of other central banks and investors are waiting for signs of a change of direction. “There is only a slight chance that the BoJ will exit negative rate territory this week“, however estimated Monday Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote.

As for the euro, it rose by 0.25% to 1.0922 dollars per euro.

Bitcoin fell 0.62% to $41,620.

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