Investors are extremely cautious in early August after corporate earnings avalanche
The avalanche of corporate results of the past few weeks is giving way to a calmer start to August, with investors appearing to be cautious about the global economic uncertainty that is so prevalent in equity markets. The Ibex-35, which started the session with gains, gave way to 8,200 points with Solaria’s ballast, which lost more than 7.8% in the mid-session, and despite upward pressure from some stocks such as Bankinter, which leads the increases in the selective with advances of 2.23%.
The financial sector could have benefited more this Monday from the results of the giant HSBC, which earned 14% more in the first half to 8,103 million euros. However, not all entities reacted the same to this upside. Banco Santander and BBVA are even in negative territory with declines of 0.8%.
The decline of the Cantabrian bank is particularly notable, as it has recently received an improvement in the recommendation of Credit Suisse analysts, who are raising the entity’s price target from EUR 5 to EUR 5.20 per share.
Investors have been extremely cautious after hearing some macroeconomic data that has rekindled fears of a possible recession at the end of the year. In particular, manufacturing activity in Spain deteriorated again in July, with the PMI index falling to 48.7 points from 52.6 a month earlier.
It is the first time since May 2020 that it has fallen below 50 points, the threshold separating growth from contraction. In the eurozone as a whole, the PMI fell to 49.8 points, its worst in 25 months.
On the other hand, in the commodities market, the price of a barrel of Brent oil, a benchmark in Europe, stood at $102.54, down 1.38%, while the Texas was at $96.75 after a decrease of 1.90 %.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
