(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – Plus sign at the start of European stock exchanges, in the wake of Asia and Wall Street. The session was positive for Asian stock exchanges, with the sell-off on bonds (US 10-year yields rose to 2.417%), on the back of the possibility of a faster-than-expected rate hike in the US. The stalemate in the war in Ukraine remains at the center of attention, especially on the energy market front. US President Joe Biden will attend an extraordinary NATO summit in Europe on Thursday, then a G7 summit and, finally, a European Council meeting. The United States and its allies will also announce new sanctions against Moscow.
The price of oil continues to rise, with Brent at $ 116.7 (+ 1%) and WTI at 110.21 (+ 0.86%) while gas contracts traded in Amsterdam mark an increase of 0.6 % to 99.5 euros per KWk. Dollar on the run on the currency, with the yen updating its six-year low to 121.415 and now trading 121.07. The euro / dollar moved little to 1.1024. The progress of Covid-19 cases also remains to be monitored, with China having imposed new lockdowns in several cities.
Tokyo up sharply (+ 3%) with weak yen
Closing with a sharp rise for the Tokyo Stock Exchange which marked the second consecutive positive session, driven in particular by the weakness of the yen against the dollar. At the end of the session, the Nikkei index posted a 3% gain to 28,040.16 points while the broader Topix index closed up 2.33% to 1,978.70 points. The trade was driven by the shares of domestic exporting companies benefiting from the continuous decline of the Japanese currency against the greenback, which on Tuesday pushed beyond the 120 yen threshold for the first time in six years.
Fears for the economy
All this after a session in sharp rise for European stock exchanges, also driven by the good performance of Wall Street, on a day in which the prospect of an acceleration of central banks on interest rates has favored risk appetite and penalizes the government. Certainly in the background there is always the concern about how much the Ukrainian conflict and inflation, pushed by the flare-up in energy prices, will slow down the growth of the economy (Fitch has revised its growth forecasts for world GDP and the Eurozone downwards. providing for the latter + 3% from the previous + 4.5%).
Wall Street up, 10-year yield at the top since 2019
Wall Street, for its part, closed higher. The Dow Jones was up + 0.74%, the Nasdaq was up + 1.95% and the S&P 500 posted a gain of + 1.13% after the declines on the eve of the day. The indices are experiencing their fifth session up on the last six and keep the monthly account positive. What weighed on Monday, March 21 was above all the words of Jerome Powell: the president of the Federal Reserve said that inflation in the United States is “too high” and that the central bank is ready to “take a more aggressive attitude” and raise interest rates of more than 25 basis points at the next meeting (s).