Prudence prevails, however, on learning that the US created much more employment than expected in July, which encourages further rate hikes by the Fed
The world stock markets reacted cautiously to one of the main macroeconomic references of the week, the unemployment data in the US, which will undoubtedly mark the next decision on interest rates by the Federal Reserve (Fed). And the conclusion is clear: at least as far as the labor market is concerned, the recession is far from over.
During the month of July, the US economy created 528,000 new jobs. A figure that doubles what was anticipated by the consensus of analysts. And the employment rate fell again to 3.5%, compared to the estimate that it would remain at the previous 3.6%. In both cases, these are levels prior to February 2020, in the midst of the outbreak of the pandemic.
Investors are trying to remain calm in the face of the difficult balance between good economic news that, in turn, would facilitate further increases in interest rates. At the close of the European markets, prudence prevailed on Wall Street with slight losses in its main indicators. In the Old Continent, the red numbers prevailed, although the Ibex-35 held up with a timid rise of 0.08%.
The indicator will start on Monday from 8,168 points after advancing another 0.14% weekly and chaining its third consecutive week of increases.
Within the national trading floor, the advances could have been greater had it not been for the downward pressure exerted by Cellnex, which dropped 3%, and Naturgy, with falls of 2.6% after learning that the company has been forced to delay its presentation of half-yearly accounts, scheduled for this same Friday, until August 11, due to a legal conflict in Argentina.
The Ibex was thus unable to take full advantage of the good behavior of the banks throughout the session, with Banco Sabadell leading the selective with increases of 4.3%, while CaixaBank rose 3% and Santander another 1.6 %. Other large stocks such as Telefónica also helped in the increases with an increase of 1.7%, which returned the operator’s price to 4.28 euros per share.
In the raw materials market, in a week marked by OPEC’s decision to timidly increase its production -by just 100,000 barrels per day- the barrel of Brent, a reference in Europe, recovered some ground to 96 euros, while the American West Texas recovered the 90 dollars. Both levels are already linked to the 120 dollars that were reached in the most tense moments of the energy market in June.
#Ibex #closes #week #increases #employment