The selective one leaves another 0.8% on the prospect of further rate hikes | Grifols plummets 10.5% after his president’s resignation
The sharp declines recorded on Wall Street on Tuesday are being carried over to European markets, with the Ibex-35 losing 0.86% to 9,172 points.
“Fear that central banks will hike official interest rates much higher than expected” has caused fixed income and variable income markets to lose some intensity in recent days, according to Link Securities analysts. However, they indicate that the declines have occurred with very low trading volumes, suggesting that investors have not panicked for now.
In Spain, Grifols led the declines with losses of more than 10.5% following the resignation of the company’s hitherto CEO, Steven F. Mayer, for health and personal reasons, and the appointment of Thomas Glanzmann as replacement.
Banks returned to the bottom of the table, with losses over 3% for Banco Sabadell, 2.8% for Unicaja and also over 2% for CaixaBank and Bankinter. Banco Santander lost 1.6% at the end of the session, while BBVA lost 0.3%.
Only five stocks closed positive, led by Telefónica with an increase of more than 1%. And another three – Rovi, Naturgy and Iberdrola – also managed to avoid the red numbers with a flat closure.
In fact, Iberdrola was one of the protagonists of the session after announcing a net profit of 4,339 million euros in 2022, representing an increase of 11.6% over the previous year, in a year where diversification Geographic offsets the 19% decrease in the result for Spain.
The macro benchmark for the day was the Ifo German business confidence index, which improved for the fourth consecutive month in February. Specifically, it stood at 91.1 points, from 90.1 points the previous month.
This positive note prevented further stock market falls ahead of the day’s most important event: the minutes of the last meeting of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), which are now known as European markets are already closed.
The analyst consensus has taken a radical turn in recent weeks with expectations of interest rate hikes given the strength reflected by the economy. In the eurozone, some voices are already suggesting that final interest rates (as the maximum central banks are willing to reach to fight inflation are called) will be close to or even above 4%. “For the US, levels between 5.25% and 5.50% are being considered, with some analysts even talking about 6%,” the experts recall.
So far, developed economies have managed to avoid recession. But the fear is that prolonged high interest rates will eventually lead to a hard landing.
In this scenario, the price of commodities is once again in the spotlight. The barrel of Brent oil, a reference in Europe, is losing positions and trading around 82 points, while the US West Texas is trading around $75.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
