Paris lost 1.58%, London dropped 1.55%, Frankfurt 0.71%, Madrid 1.33% and Milan 1.13%. In Zurich, the SMI lost 0.94%.
–
European markets closed the last session of the week on a decline, cooled by the latest indicators on the Chinese and American economy, and the British decision to impose a quarantine on travelers from France and the Netherlands.
Paris lost 1.58%, London dropped 1.55%, Frankfurt 0.71%, Madrid 1.33% and Milan 1.13%. In Zurich, the SMI lost 0.94%.
On Wall Street, the indices were moving in dispersed order at mid-session, the Dow Jones advancing 0.15%, the S&P 500 0.07% and the Nasdaq losing 0.24%.
Gloomy Chinese and US economic statistics punctuated today’s session, robbing investors of the optimism they had shown earlier in the week.
Beijing notably posted a drop in retail sales in July over one year. In the United States, retail sales rose 1.2% in July from June, a much slower pace than the previous two months.
Chinese industrial production, on the other hand, recorded an increase of 4.8% over one year, at the same pace as in June.
“This gives the feeling that the recovery is slowing, we feel that we are not on a + V + recovery in Europe, the United States and China”, notes Alexandre Baradez, analyst at IG France.
Quarantine
Another important topic on Friday, the announcement of a two-week quarantine by the United Kingdom from Saturday morning for travelers from France and the Netherlands, while the resurgence of the coronavirus is insistent in Europe.
“Travel company stocks suffered the most,” observes Michael Hewson, chief market analyst for CMC Markets UK.
Airbus dropped 1.62% to 72.11 euros, Air France-KLM 5.85% to 4.51 euros, IAG, owner of British Airways, lost 4.82% to 194.55 pence and EasyJet 6.55 % at 570.80 pence.
The tourism sector has also pitched, the hotel group Accor losing 3.93% to 24.21 euros.
In addition to fears about the global economy and the proliferation of quarantine measures, the stormy relationship between Beijing and Washington was also on the agenda on Friday.
In the midst of renewed tensions, the two powers will discuss on Saturday the agreement signed with great fanfare in January, which was to mark a truce in their trade war.
On the program in particular: the thorny question of purchases of American products promised by China, but seriously undermined by COVID-19.
This meeting will also focus on “technological issues linked to Chinese applications” which have recently been the subject of bickering between the two countries, affirms Alexandre Baradez.
The social network TikTok, belonging to the Chinese publisher ByteDance, is notably accused by the American president of being used by the Chinese intelligence services, which the platform has always denied.
Donald Trump threatens to make the application inaccessible in the United States.
In this generally gloomy context before the weekend of August 15, cyclical stocks, sensitive to the economic situation, suffered.
This is the case with banks, such as Société Générale (-0.94% to 14.07 euros), Crédit Agricole (-1.32% to 8.79 euros), or HSBC 0.71% to 341.30 pence. .
On the bond market, 10-year interest rates were relatively stable, with the German “Bund” moving at -0.42%, the French rate at -0.12%, the Italian rate at 0.99% and the Spanish rate at 0.37%.
–
