London (AFP) – Stock markets diverged Friday as investors weighed the outlook for US and eurozone interest rates and waited to see whether China’s finance minister will announce fresh economic stimulus measures at a weekend briefing. Wall Street opened mixed, with the Dow and broad-based S&P 500 rising but the tech-heavy Nasdaq falling after disappointing US inflation data lowered expectations of another big rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Shanghai’s stock market closed more than two percent lower after a week dominated by concerns over a lack of detail on the scale of China’s recent batch of stimulus measures. Focus is now on Saturday’s briefing at which Finance Minister Lan Fo’an is to set out fiscal policy.
“The stakes are high — most observers agree that recent stimulus announcements won’t amount to much unless backed up by fiscal support,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics, in a note. “Three factors will be key in determining the impact of stimulus: its scale, where it’s channelled, and how soon it’s deployed,” he said.
The Paris and Frankfurt stock markets both rose, with eurozone investors hoping the European Central Bank will make its third interest rate cut of the year next week. Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and Forex.com, said the ECB is expected to reduce rates by 25 basis points, half the size of the Fed’s first rate cut in four years last month. “Holding the ECB from being more aggressive in its rate-cutting is the still-strong wage growth in Eurozone, and the fact that the Fed has signalled it won’t cut rates aggressively again following its initial 50 basis point rate cut,” Razaqzada said. “Middle East tensions add another layer of uncertainty for Eurozone given that its largest member states are all net energy importers,” he said. The Fed’s next policy meeting is in November.
Expectations of another bumper rate cut were dampened by data Thursday showing US consumer inflation slowed to 2.4 percent in September, which was slightly above analyst expectations. “Somewhat higher-than-expected inflation in September has eliminated market expectations of anything more than a 25 basis point interest rate reduction at the Fed’s November meeting,” said market strategist Patrick Munnelly at traders Tickmill Group. Fresh data on Friday showed US wholesale prices were unchanged in September.
In London, the British capital’s top-tier FTSE 100 index rose as data showed the UK economy rebounded in August after stagnating for two months. The data, in line with economists’ expectations, comes ahead of the new Labour government’s maiden budget later in October which is set to include tax rises and spending cuts. Elsewhere, oil fell by 0.8 percent after having surged more than three percent Thursday following the Israeli defence minister’s vow that his country would strike Iran in retaliation for last week’s missile attack.
– Key figures around 1400 GMT –
New York – Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 42,653.21
New York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 5,793.43
New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.1 percent at 18,256.66
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 8,247.04
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 7,566.52
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.5 percent at 19,306.19
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.6 percent at 39,605.80 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 2.6 percent at 3,217.74 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for holiday
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0940 from $1.0935 on Thursday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3071 from $1.3058
Dollar/yen: UP at 149.21 yen from 148.58 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.68 pence from 83.73 pence
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.8 percent at $75.21 per barrel
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.8 percent at $78.77 per barrel
© 2024 AFP
