European stock markets ended broadly in the red on Monday, defiant with mixed Chinese and US data, a resurgence of the pandemic in Asia and still concerned about accelerating inflation.
At the end of a hesitant session, Paris gave up 0.28%, London dropped 0.15% while Frankfurt gave up 0.13% after having climbed to 15,482 points, close to its record for the half April. For its part, Milan gained 0.39%.
Around 12:40 p.m., Wall Street was still falling: the Dow Jones fell 0.26%, the S&P 500 0.41% while the NASDAQ lost 0.79%.
“The start of the week has been cautious and moderate for European markets” amid disappointing Chinese data and “further restrictions imposed in parts of Asia,” said Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Taiwan and Singapore, two islands so far little affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, announced the closure of schools on Monday after an increase in the number of local infections.
In addition, the market is still trying to anticipate “the next step” in central bank action in the face of resurgent inflation, said Alexandre Baradez, analyst at IG France, to AFP.
Investors are “not fundamentally worried”, because who says inflation says “reopening of economies and acceleration of growth”, but “in the short term, that remains a point of fixation”, according to him.
In addition, since recent economic statistics below expectations in the United States, questions about the strength of the recovery have added to concerns about the surge in inflation.
On Monday, retail sales did not grow as fast as expected in April in China while manufacturing growth slowed somewhat in May in the New York area, despite a surge in new orders.
Against this backdrop, the minutes of the latest US Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy meeting, to be released on Wednesday, should be the focus of investor attention.
Tourism and catering suffer in London
Across the Channel, several tourism and restaurant-related stocks suffered, as investors worried about the emergence of the Indian variant in the country, which could threaten the next phase of deconfinement and the return to normal expected in late June.
Airline EasyJet lost 1.13% to 1,003.00 pence, Whitbread Group (owner of Premier Inn hotels) 2.99% to 3,085.00 pence, pub chain Wetherspoon 3.25% to 1,308.00 pence and Restaurant Group (which owns Wagamama restaurants) 6.69% to 120.00 pence.
After reporting a record loss of around one billion euros in its staggered 2020 fiscal year, Irish carrier Ryanair fell 2.81% to 16.44 euros in Dublin.
GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi on track
The British laboratory GlaxoSmithKline (+ 0.67% to 1379.60 pence) and its French partner Sanofi (+1.06% to 87.64 euros) published on Monday positive results of a clinical trial on their candidate vaccine against COVID-19, after a setback that caused several months of delay.
Adidas fuse
The Adidas title crossed the end of the session at the top of the Dax (+ 2.86% to 296.80 euros), remaining supported by press reports alleging an offer of more than a billion dollars filed by the American Authentic Brands for the loss-making brand Reebok from which the German group is seeking to separate.
Bitcoin rocked again by Musk
Bitcoin fell briefly to $ 42,185 on Monday, its lowest since February, after Tesla boss Elon Musk stoked speculation over the weekend over the possible or already ongoing sale of his group’s bitcoin holdings. He then denied having sold any bitcoin.
At around 4:45 p.m. GMT, the most famous cryptocurrency fell 2.44% to $ 43,022 as it traded above $ 50,000 on Friday.
The euro appreciated slightly (+ 0.12%) against the greenback, to $ 1.2156.
Oil is on the rise
Around 4:45 p.m. GMT, a barrel of North Sea Brent for July delivery rose 1.09% to $ 69.46 in London.
In New York, the US barrel of WTI for the month of June gained 1.33% to 66.24 dollars.
