(ABM FN) The Brussels stock market is expected to start higher on Friday, after strong gains on Wall Street on Thursday evening. Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 index pointed to a gain of more than half a percent about an hour before the stock market bell.
The Brussels stock exchange remained in the green on Thursday, while the surrounding stock markets fell by more than one percent. The Bel20 closed the trading day on Thursday with a 0.1 percent increase at 4,158.02 points, thanks to gains by Argenx and Ackermans & van Haaren.
According to investment manager Simon Wiersma of ING, the negative sentiment on the European stock markets was partly due to a catch-up effect, after Wall Street already closed lower on Wednesday after, among other things, the first omikron contamination was identified in America.
Global markets are currently volatile amid concerns about the omikron variant and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that the US central bank may need to taper faster to bring inflation down. That in turn could lead to faster rate hikes, which is particularly detrimental to tech stocks.
However, Wall Street shook off many concerns over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The S&P 500 eventually gained 1.4 percent, after initially trading just in the red, while tech exchange Nasdaq managed to add 0.8 percent. Travel stocks, which fell completely on Wednesday, made a strong comeback.
The Apple share closed against the trend in more than half a percent lower. In addition to supply chain disruptions, the company is now also struggling with reduced demand for iPhones, Bloomberg news agency reported, citing sources. Apple has since warned its suppliers. According to Bloomberg, Apple lowered its target for iPhone 13 production by 10 million units to 90 million.
In Asia, the stock markets in Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul are up one percent this morning. The Hong Kong stock exchange, on the other hand, is in the red after the Chinese taxi service Didi announced that it would be delisting in New York after only 6 months. The Chinese authorities reportedly do not want sensitive data to fall into foreign hands. Didi raised $4.4 billion in June this year with an IPO on the NYSE.
Stocks that could meet a similar fate, such as Tencent, Alibaba and Meituan, lost 2 to 5 percent.
US oil futures are also 2% higher this morning. On Thursday evening, the future in New York was already 1.4 percent higher on a settlement of $ 66.50 a barrel. OPEC and its allies will increase production by 400,000 barrels per day in January in line with existing agreements, despite concerns about the potential impact of the omikron variant of the coronavirus.
“With this, OPEC+ is meeting the needs of oil-importing countries such as India, China and the US,” said senior energy economist Hans van Cleef of ABN AMRO.
This afternoon’s focus will be on the release of the US jobs report, which is considered the world’s most important macro data. For the month of November, the market expects an average job growth of 573,000 and an unemployment of 4.5 percent.
Company news
Shareholders of Telenet approved the dividend proposal of 1.375 euros per share on Thursday. In total, Telenet will pay out 150.4 million euros. The share will trade ex-dividend on December 6.
Brederode posted good results in the third quarter, as a result of which shareholders’ equity also increased. At the end of September, the holding’s profit for the first nine months of the year was EUR 760 million. Shareholders’ equity amounted to 3.4 billion euros, compared to 2.7 billion at the beginning of the financial year.
Fagron wants to change the composition of the board of directors, which means that Marc Coucke’s Alychlo will lose 1 of his 2 seats.
Bone Therapeutics raised 3.3 million euros with the placement of more than 4.8 million new shares. The new shares were placed at 0.68 euros each with existing and new institutional investors, a significant discount compared to the last closing price.
Celyad Oncology even raised $32.5 million with the issuance of 6.5 million new shares to a division of Fortress Investment Group. The shares were placed at $5.00 each.
Smartphoto took over the Belgian Frucon². The group acquires 100 percent of the shares of Frucon², for 4.65 million euros, of which 4.15 million in cash and 500,000 euros in treasury shares.
Berenberg has started following Titan Cement with a Hold recommendation and a price target of 14.00 euros.
Wall Street closing positions
The S&P 500 gained 1.4 percent on Thursday at 4,577.10 points, the Dow Jones index rose 1.8 percent to 34,639.79 points and the Nasdaq finished 0.8 percent higher at a closing position of 15,381.32 points.
Bron: ABM Financial News
From Beursplein 5, the editors of ABM Financial News keep a close eye on developments on the stock exchanges, and the Amsterdam stock exchange in particular. The information in this column is not intended as professional investment advice or as a recommendation to make certain investments.
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