The selective faces the last quadruple witch hour of the year with the challenge of holding the 8,300 points
Stock markets put the brakes on and the Ibex-35 puts at risk ending the week in positive after a session of notable falls for the Nasdaq on Wall Street that today are transferred to Europe. The Ibex-35 lost 0.7% to 8,320 points in a session also marked by the last quadruple witch hour of the year (expiration of options and futures on both sides of the Atlantic), which always tends to add some volatility to the market.
Investors are trying to stay afloat after the sharp falls experienced yesterday by the technology sector in the US, one of the most sensitive to rising interest rates. And it is that the turn of the monetary policies that the central banks have put on the table this week will continue to be one of the factors that move the markets in the coming days.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) already made it clear a few days ago that the time has come to reduce stimulus again and raise interest rates in 2022, while the Bank of England on Thursday gave the surprise by announcing its first rate hike since 2018, a move that was also decided by the Norwegian monetary body.
And in this scenario, the European Central Bank (ECB) was a little behind in its meeting on Thursday, confirming that it will reduce stimuli, but in a very progressive way and for now without touching interest rates. This Friday it was the turn of the Bank of Japan, which has joined the rest of the world’s central banks in announcing a cut in emergency aid launched during the pandemic.
Protagonists
Investors try to digest what happened by undoing risky positions and thus exiting equities. Within the national stock market, the strong fall of Cellnex stands out, of more than 5.6% to 49.4 cents per share, after learning that the British regulator has warned of competition problems in the operation by which the tower manager of the company was going to buy the towers from Hong Kong’s Hutchison.
Also attentive to Telefónica. Its shareholders who bet to collect the dividend in cash receive this Friday the payment of 0.148 euros per share.
The movements are more relaxed in the commodities market, with the barrel of Brent, a benchmark in Europe, falling slightly to 74 dollars, while the American West Texas hovers around 71.7 dollars.
.