(ABM FN) The Brussels stock exchange is expected to have a waiting opening on Monday. Futures on the Euro Stoxx index did not move about an hour before the stock market bell.
The Brussels stock exchange closed last week, thanks to a good close on Friday, at 3,736 points, compared to 3,741 points a week earlier.
Investors are currently disregarding concerns about the US debt ceiling, as well as interest rate, inflation and recession developments. Tech stocks in particular are currently benefiting from high expectations of AI applications, or artificial intelligence.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs calculated in a report last week that AI applications could boost the profit margins of US S&P 500 companies by 400 basis points over the next 10 years.
Earlier this month, IBM announced that it has, among other things, set a job freeze for its global customer service. CEO Arvind Krishna said in an interview that he foresees that about 30 percent of the roughly 26,000 non-customer-facing functions, such as human resources, could be replaced by AI over five years.
Meanwhile, on the US debt ceiling front, the June 1 deadline is approaching. Today, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden meet at the White House.
On Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that “hard choices” will have to be made about which bills will go unpaid if the debt ceiling is not raised.
President Biden said late last week that a deal must be made with the Republicans, “because there is no alternative,” and “every leader understands the consequences of failure.” Both parties still have to add a lot of water to the wine from a budgetary point of view. The Democrats want to increase the budget and Republicans slam the brakes.
In Asia, the People’s Bank of China left its key interest rates unchanged this morning. Inflation was found to have fallen to its lowest level in more than two years last week in April, while producer prices fell further.
Sentiment in Asia is mostly positive this morning, with the Hong Kong stock exchange leading the way, with an increase of almost one and a half percent. Only the stock exchange in Sydney is narrowly in the red.
US oil futures are down 0.8 percent this morning at $70.96 a barrel.
The macroeconomic agenda is still virtually empty today.
Company news
IBA signed a binding term sheet with Medtechnica for the installation of two Proteus One compact therapy solutions at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv.
UnifiedPost’s turnover grew by 4.1 percent to 48.2 million euros last quarter. Of this, the recurring turnover from digital processing was 32.0 million euros, an increase of almost 15 percent.
Glass fiber company GlasDraad of the Belgian TINC and the Dutch company Glaspoort, a joint venture of KPN and APG, have received the green light from the Dutch competition authority for their plans.
Jefferies lowered the price target for Bpost from 5.50 to 4.20 euros. The advice remains Hold.
Wall Street closing positions
The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent on Friday at 4,191.98 points, the Dow Jones index lost 0.3 percent at 33,426.63 points and the Nasdaq closed 0.2 percent lower at 12,657.90 points.
Bron: ABM Financial News
The editors of follow from Beursplein 5 ABM Financial News developments on the stock exchanges, and the Amsterdam stock exchange in particular, closely. The information in this column is not intended as professional investment advice or as a recommendation to make certain investments.
2023-05-22 06:07:00
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