The Amsterdam Stock Exchange was slightly higher on Tuesday morning. Around the eleven o’clock clock, the AEX rose 0.6 percent to 711.17 points.
“Bond and equity investors are divided by predominantly positive business figures, but negative macroeconomic developments,” SEB analysts said. “In the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision tomorrow and U.S. growth figures on Thursday, investors remain close to home.”
According to Corpay analysts, the market expects the Fed to push through a 75 basis point rate hike this week, while many also expect policymakers to recognize that price pressures and risks of a slowdown are easing. This may be the basis for more limited interest rate increases in the fall.
The ECB and the BoE are likely to push their rate hikes less far, Fidelity expects. “The European and UK economies are more exposed to the war in Ukraine and are at greater risk of recession,” said Fidelity CIO Andrew McCaffery. “Nevertheless, the risks to global growth are clear.”The chance of a hard landing, with central banks pushing the economy into recession, pulled Fidelity up from 35 to 60 percent.
Investment specialist Kevin Verstraete of Lynx also noticed a certain degree of caution among European investors this morning. “The threat of running out of gas seems real and this translates into caution.”Gazprom announced on Monday that it will cut gas supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline from this week. Gas prices rose 12 percent in Europe on Monday. Oil prices rose to just under one percent.
The euro / dollar currency pair was trading around a level of 1.0211.
Ascenders and descenders
Among the main funds, Randstad delivered 3.8 percent after figures. Jefferies pointed to weakness in the northern part of Europe. The bank pointed to the relative weakness that was evident in France and the Netherlands, among others, while Belgium also remained below the bank’s forecast. North America was clearly better than expected, according to Jefferies. Degroof Petercam and KBC Securities have already lowered their price target for Randstad. Just Eat Takeaway lost 4.0 percent.
Philips won 2.8 percent, after a hefty penalty on Monday following figures. Unilever’s quarterly figures, including an outlook increase, were rewarded with a price gain of 3.0 percent. “A beautiful windfall,” Degroof Petercam judged.
In the AMX, OCI won 1.4 percent, as did AMG. Basic-Fit made a price drop of 6.7 percent after a sales advice from Berenberg. Berenberg thinks”that a lot can go wrong for Basic-Fit”. For example, high inflation, which is weighing on consumer confidence, is unfavorable for the fitness chain, and the long-term plans of the chain are built on too optimistic assumptions, according to the Commercial Bank. Additional capital may also be needed for these plans, Berenberg said.
Fugro fell by 3.5 percent, also after figures. The soil researcher also raised 116 million euros by placing 10.3 million new shares. This happened at a rate of 11.25 euros, a discount of just over 5 percent.
Among the smaller shares, Forfarmers won 2.0 percent. Acomo rose slightly after opening the books. A new contract for Scotland saw Envipco rewarded with a price increase of 3.2 percent.
