European, US stocks creep higher

LONDON (AFP/APP): Europe’s major stock indices edged higher Thursday, while Wall Street opened mixed, following a series of losses at the beginning of the year.

Frankfurt, London and Paris stocks rose slightly from heavy falls Wednesday, when deadly blasts in Iran rattled markets and fanned fears of a broadening conflict in the Middle East.

Most Asian stocks dipped Thursday in line with Wall Street on Wednesday, after minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s December meeting dampened hopes for an early interest-rate cut.

The Dow rose 0.2 percent at the start trading on Thursday, while the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq both slid.

Oil prices rallied further on supplies worries.

“With Western nations threatening more forceful actions to defend shipping in the Red Sea, the situation was looking tense even before yesterday’s explosions in Iran,” noted Steve Clayton, head of equity funds at UK stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown.
“The Israeli/Hamas conflict rages on, leaving oil traders increasingly wary of the security of supplies from the region.”

A global rally for equities that characterised the last months of 2023 has petered out on concerns that the buying may have run ahead of itself.

The selling pressure was enhanced Wednesday when the Fed minutes showed officials expect to keep US interest rates elevated for some time as they want to make sure they have inflation under control.

That dealt a blow to confidence on trading floors, where investors had been betting on a cut as soon as March after the US central bank’s post-meeting statement last month showed they envisioned three reductions in 2024.

Officials were keen to begin cutting this year but gave no indication of when.
“The trouble is that the markets are pricing in up to 150 basis points-worth of rate cuts this year, double the Fed’s forecast,” said market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation.

“Consequently, there’s plenty of scope for disappointment.”

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare noted that yields on US government bonds have risen following the publication of the Fed minutes on “rate-cut angst”.

Data released Thursday showed the US private sector added more jobs than anticipated in December, but wage growth slowed.

Focus now turns to the release of key non-farm payrolls data due on Friday.
“The US unemployment situation is a key factor in the outlook for inflation,” said Morrison.

Oil prices jumped again, having climbed more than three percent Wednesday after twin bomb blasts ripped through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed four years ago in a US strike in Iraq.
The explosions, which killed 84 people, came with tensions already sky-high in the crude-rich region owing to Israel’s Gaza war and following the killing of Hamas’s deputy leader in Lebanon this week.

The news added to supply concerns after the closure of a Libyan oil field.
The yen continued its post-quake slide, losing more than one percent against the dollar and euro.