Global markets climb amid indecisive political situation in the United States Global stock markets rallied on Wednesday, continuing to m...
Global markets climb amid indecisive political situation in the
United States
Global stock markets rallied on Wednesday, continuing to monitor
the results of a dagger-drawn US presidential election between Donald Trump and
Joe Biden, while Congress is likely to remain divided between a Democratic
House and a Republican Senate.
Wall Street finished off with a bang, with the technology-heavy
Nasdaq index climbing 3.85%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.88% and
the S&P 500 gained 3.33%.
After sharply lower openings in the morning, quickly corrected, the
main European markets progressed during the day and all ended up sharply. Paris
took 2.44%, London 1.67%, Frankfurt 1.95%, Milan 1.96%.
Crude prices have also moved forward: the price of a barrel of WTI
oil for delivery in December, listed in New York, gained 3.95% to 39.15 dollars
and that of Brent for delivery in January, traded in London, 3.82% to 41.23
dollars.
Up since the start of European trading, both benchmark prices rose
further after news of a surprise drop in US crude trading inventories.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden was at the gates of the White House
on Wednesday after precious victories in two key states against Donald Trump,
who for his part promised a real judicial guerrilla war.
With Wisconsin and Michigan in his pocket, second and third states
taken from Donald Trump with Arizona, Joe Biden now has 264 voters. If he won
Nevada (6), he would reach the magic number 270 to be elected President of the
United States.
For its part, Mr. Trump's campaign team has announced legal
offensives in Wisconsin to demand a recount and in Pennsylvania to suspend the
counting of that state with an uncertain outcome.
The president himself had threatened during the night of Tuesday to
Wednesday, in a confused speech, to seize the Supreme Court, while remaining
evasive on the grounds.
" Dead end "
Financial markets appeared to be bracing for a Joe Biden
presidency, however, as Republicans were on the verge of retaining their Senate
majority and Democrats were expected to keep control of the House of
Representatives.
"That means we'll be at a political stalemate, which the
market sees positively," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
"Whoever wins, he will not be able to fully implement his
program," adds the expert.
The absence of a "blue wave" for the Democrats means in
particular that it will be much more difficult for Mr. Biden, in the event of
final victory, to pass his tax increases on the big companies and the big
American fortunes as well as on stock market gains.
The dollar was moving at equilibrium (+ 0.04% against the euro at
1.172 7 dollars per euro, -0.07% against the yen at 104.52 yen per dollar).
In the European and US bond markets, interest rates fell on
ten-year debt, a sign of the search for securities deemed safer than stocks.
In New York, America's digital stalwarts posted impressive gains,
including Alphabet (+ 6.09%), the parent company of Google, and Facebook (+
8.32%).
For some analysts, the reason for this progress is that with a
divided Congress, Democrats will have less leeway to dismantle these companies,
subject to several investigations and legal proceedings.
The chauffeur-driven car reservation platforms (VTC) Uber (+
14.59%) and Lyft (+ 11.28%), for their part, took off after obtaining a major
victory in a referendum in California to preserve their economic model.
In Frankfurt, defensive stocks were the most sought after, like
health group Fresenius Medical Care (+ 6.96%), as was Sanofi (+ 6.31%) in
Paris.
Food delivery hero Delivery Hero's share also gained 7.8%,
benefiting in particular from the introduction of partial lockdowns in Europe.
Several stocks in London benefited from the rise of the dollar
against the pound, AstraZeneca (+ 6.88%), and British american tobacco (+
3.54%) were among them.
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