Updates with Wall Street Closure
PARIS (awp / afp) – The European and American markets ended with a fanfare on Friday, at the end of a jagged week, boosted by announcements of partial economic recovery in several regions of the world and the hope of treatment for Covid-19.
In the wake of the Asian markets, the European stock markets all ended in an optimistic mood Friday, posting, from London to Frankfurt via Paris, gains ranging from 2.82% to more than 3%. Milan went up by 1.71% and Madrid by 1.66%.
Same enthusiasm on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones appreciated by 2.99%, the S&P 500 by 2.68% and the Nasdaq by 1.38%.
“European markets experienced a very bullish movement (this Friday) in the wake of reports that progress had been made in handling the Covid-19,” said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets.
The publication Stat News has indeed reported the first promising results of a study on a drug from the Gilead laboratory for patients with severe cases of Covid-19.
Several analysts, however, urged caution in the face of still very preliminary results.
“Positive market mood” is also fueled by easing restrictions in a number of countries “, while” companies in Italy, Spain and Austria reopen this week and Germany will follow the week next, “says Madden.
Pressed to revive the world’s largest economy as quickly as possible, Donald Trump also planned to reopen the country “carefully, step by step”, “State by State”, on the basis of health data, without giving a precise timetable.
In any case, this positive news was enough to make us forget the dizzying decline in Chinese growth in the first quarter, which fell 6.8% year on year, unheard of since the establishment of quarterly statistics in the early 1990s. .
“It is quite rare to have such a figure in Asia. It was a rather negative factor but was generally expected,” said AFP Andrea Tuéni, an analyst at Saxo Bank.
However, the recovery “is not going to be as simple as that”, he warns, saying that “not all sectors will recover as quickly”.
“Hence a slightly hesitant market which remains cautious” over the whole of the past week, said the specialist.
The restart “should take time and be expensive for companies, which will have to put in place important hygiene rules and adapt the structure of workplaces to avoid contact as much as possible”, also comments Vincent Boy, market analyst at IG France.
Microeconomics under the microscope
The Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 145,000 people worldwide, continues to tear the world economy apart and spreads wildly, contaminating more than 2 million people and leading to the unprecedented containment of ” at least 4.5 billion people.
Now better able – in light of the latest forecasts from the IMF or central banks – to judge the macroeconomic impact of the coronavirus, investors will turn to the microeconomics in the coming days as the season for quarterly publications, which has started this week in the United States with the banks, will gradually reach Europe.
“The details of the health of companies, plans that will be put in place to fight in this delicate period are subjects that will be interesting to watch”, judge M. Tuéni.
On the other hand, “no immediate exit from the crisis for oil as long as the economies do not start again and as a result demand does not return to a semblance of normalcy”, he anticipates.
The price of a barrel of oil quoted in New York fell Friday to its lowest since January 2002 while it becomes more and more difficult to store crude in the United States. Over the week, it plunged 19.7%.
Brent crude in London rose 0.90% on Friday, but lost 10.8% over the week.
The euro, after hesitating between progressing and falling against the dollar, opted for a timid rise.
pan-jra-jum / gold
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