(Photo: The Canadian Press)
MARKET REVIEWS. Western stock markets are progressing on Monday after a generally bearish week, in a further reduced schedule before new data on inflation and the meeting of the European Central Bank.
Stock market indices at 8:00 a.m.
London, Frankfurt and Paris added between 0.7% and 0.9% at the start of the session in Europe.
In New York, before the markets opened, the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks rose by 0.3% and the broader S&P 500 index by 0.4%.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.4% in Tokyo. The Shanghai stock market advanced 0.8% and the Hang Seng slipped 0.6% in Hong Kong. Sydney rose 0.5% and Seoul gained 0.4%.
On the New York Commodity Exchange, the price of oil dropped 20 US cents to US$87.31 per barrel.
The context
“Hesitation still dominates the markets. Despite the slowdown in Europe and China, no significant decline is currently visible on the indices,” writes Vincent Boy, analyst at IG France.
On the bond market, interest rates on government bonds started to rise again, approaching their highest level of the year reached at the end of August.
Investors will have more information to sink their teeth into on Wednesday, after the CPI inflation indicator in the United States in August, or activity indicators for the country on Friday.
Between the two, all eyes will be on the European Central Bank: it will have to choose between raising its rates for the tenth time in a row or decreeing a pause, with a disappointing inflation trajectory and a gloomy economic situation.
Investors with shortened arms on ARM
SoftBank Group shares rose 3.86% in Tokyo. According to information from Bloomberg, its subsidiary ARM, the British electronic chip giant whose IPO is scheduled for Thursday on Wall Street, would consider raising the price range of the operation after it was oversubscribed six times . ARM currently expects an initial price of between US$47 and US$51 per share, targeting a valuation of up to US$52 billion (US$).
Covestro carbide
The German plastics and chemicals manufacturer Covestro announced on Friday that it had accepted discussions with the United Arab Emirates hydrocarbon giant ADNOC after having recently rejected, according to the press, previous takeover offers from the latter.
The action, which had jumped more than 7% on Friday based on its rumors, gained another 0.68% on Monday. But the share price, 53.06 euros, is still lower than the price mentioned in the press, up to 60 euros.
The yen climbs
THE Japanese yen rose more than 1.19% against the US dollar, to 146.10 yen per dollar, its highest level since September 1. In an interview published this weekend by the daily Yomiuri, Governor Kazuo Ueda estimated that the Japanese central bank could have enough elements “by the end of the year” to gauge wage growth, a factor decisive for any decision on a change in monetary policy.
The statement also pushed interest rates on Japan’s tightly controlled 10-year government bond to their highest level since 2014, at 0.7%.
Japanese bank securities rose, fueled by speculation about an imminent end to the BoJ’s negative rate: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group gained 4.29%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 5.34% and Mizuho 4.42%.
But the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 0.43%, with the rise of the yen penalizing the country’s many exporting companies. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong lost 0.58%, Shanghai gained 0.84%.
The euro advanced 0.23% to US$1.0725 per euro.
THE bitcoin fell 0.56% to US$25,670.
Oil prices fell, but remained at a high level after their new surge last week, which took them to their annual high. THE barrel of North Sea Brent lost 0.24% to US$90.43, and its American equivalent, the WTI0.51% to US$87.06.
The course of European natural gas rose 6.90% to 36.89 euros per megawatt hour, driven by disruptions in the supply of liquefied natural gas from Australia due to a strike.
