Cautious until mid-session, the CAC 40 is now trading sharply lower, shedding 1.01% to 8,032 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX 40 edged down 0.11% despite a positive start this morning.<\/p>\n
This deterioration in market sentiment stems from developments in the Middle East following a ceasefire violation. According to the Iranian media outlet Fars, ‘two missiles struck a US Navy frigate. The frigate, which was sailing through the Strait of Hormuz this Monday in violation of navigation and maritime security rules near Jask, was targeted by a missile attack after ignoring a warning from the Iranian Navy’.<\/p>\n
Should these reports prove accurate, it is highly likely that Donald Trump will retaliate against Iran, and not merely through rhetoric. A further escalation of the situation is therefore feared, which is notably weighing on the CAC 40.<\/p>\n
For its part, the US military stated on X: ‘no US Navy ships have been hit’.<\/p>\n
Logically, crude oil prices remain at elevated levels amid these concerns. In New York, WTI is trading at 105.16 dollars, while North Sea Brent in London is exchanging at 111.87 dollars.<\/p>\n
Tensions are thus resurfacing in the region, and the likelihood of seeing the Strait of Hormuz reopen with a return to normalcy is receding, fueling fears of prolonged inflationary pressures.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, according to ECB member Peter Kazimir, a rate hike by the European Central Bank is ‘nearly inevitable’ in June.<\/p>\n
On the currency market, the euro is retreating against the greenback (-0.22%), trading at 1.1699 dollars.<\/p>\n
Regarding macroeconomics, the French manufacturing PMI rose as expected in April to reach 52.8 points, its highest level since May 2022.<\/p>\n
In Germany, the same indicator fell slightly less than feared, moving from 52.2 to 51.4 points, whereas analysts had anticipated a decline to 51.2 points.<\/p>\n
Finally, in the eurozone, it increased from 51.6 to 52.2 points, in line with forecasts. This marks a 47-month high, signaling strengthening growth in the sector.<\/p>\n
Investors will be monitoring US factory orders for March later this afternoon.<\/p>\n
#MiddleEastTensions #StraitOfHormuz #OilPrices #StockMarket #CAC40 #IranUS #Geopolitics #GlobalEconomy #Inflation #ECB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cautious until mid-session, the CAC 40 is now trading sharply lower, shedding 1.01% to 8,032 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX 40 edged down 0.11% despite a positive start this morning. This deterioration in market sentiment stems from developments in the Middle East following a ceasefire violation. According to the Iranian media outlet Fars, ‘two missiles struck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}