Despite new records for the major American indices, the trend has been towards consolidation for the markets, after the strong rise recorded since early November.
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Is the end of year rally already over? After having chained up five weeks and gained 20% in November, the Cac 40 lacked the juice to go higher, failing to maintain the 5,600 points regained on Friday, November 4. The Paris index ended the week with a weekly loss of 1.81%, not without some additional records for some of its components, Schneider Electric on Wednesday then LVMH on Friday.
In New York, the trend was also towards consolidation, with the Dow Jones and Nasdaq losing 1% over five days (at 5 p.m. Friday). Wall Street, however, stood out over the week with new all-time highs for its three major indices, the S&P 500, the largest, being no exception. In a tourism sector that is in the midst of a slump, the introduction of the Airbnb accommodation platform has been a resounding success (see page 14).
The hope sparked by the anti-Covid vaccines and the first injections in the United Kingdom remain supporting factors but which are tending to run out of steam. Especially since questions are being raised about the effectiveness or the rate of vaccination of populations, questions reinforced by the decision of Sanofi and GSK to postpone the distribution of their vaccine until the end of 2021, which contributed to the decline of the Cac 40 , Friday.
Politics and geopolitics also participated in the ambient gloom: in the United States, Republicans and Democrats are still discussing the new support plan, when, in Europe, we were heading, Friday, on a divorce without agreement between London and Brussels.
As for the ECB’s long-awaited monetary policy announcements on Thursday, they were so well anticipated that the markets hardly reacted to the strengthening and extension of the central bank’s asset buyback program. In this context, will the Federal Reserve be able to surprise next week?
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CECILE LE COZ
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