In Euromarkets’ “deep red” territory, France’s CAC 40 plunges 2.4%

In the “deep red” European stock markets continue Thursday’s trading, extending yesterday’s losses in a climate of anxiety that formed the weak economic data announced in the largest economies in the world, while investors are also preparing for a new increase in interest rates in the coming months.

The data announced in the previous days showed that in China, the Service sector activity slowed significantly in June. The picture is similar in Europe, where the PMIs show Contraction of business activity in the previous month. In the USA, corresponding investigations showed that Manufacturing entered a deep recession.

Most analysts expect continued pressure on economic growth amid tightening global monetary policy to control inflation, and the world’s largest central banks are preparing to raise interest rates.

Minutes of the last meeting of the US Federal Reserve It was posted yesterday It showed that officials are preparing for more interest rate hikes as well. The central bank decided to stop tightening in June, while keeping interest rates unchanged after ten consecutive increases.

the Today, strong US labor market data was released They are paving the way for the central bank to return to raising interest rates from its next meeting in July.

At a board level, the pan-European STOXX 600 Index fell 1.7%, with STOXX Europe 600 Travel & Leisure and STOXX Europe 600 Retail down 3.2% and 2.5%, respectively.

Germany’s DAX lost 1.65% to 15676.24, France’s CAC 40 index fell 2.3% to 7140.03, while Britain’s FTSE 100 index fell 1.7% to 7315.36.

In the region, the Italian FTSE MIB fell 1.65%, while the Spanish IBEX 35 lost 1.2%.

Today’s figures for retail sales in the Eurozone were also disappointing.

In particular, the volume of retail trade remained unchanged in May in the euro area and decreased by 0.1% in the European Union. compared to April, according to a preliminary estimate by Eurostat.

Compared to May 2022, the retail sales index decreased by 2.9% in the Eurozone and by 3.0% in the European Union.

It is noteworthy that the average estimates of analysts for the eurozone were for a monthly increase of 0.2% and an annual decrease of 2.7%, according to a Reuters poll.

In an encouraging development, data released today in Germany showed that industrial orders rose more-than-expected in May, although analysts attributed the increase to some large orders in the transportation sector.

In particular, industrial orders rose 6.4%, beating analysts’ estimates for an increase of 1.2%. The transportation equipment category – which includes items such as ships, railroad equipment, aircraft and military vehicles – saw a 137.1% jump.