Stock market indices in Europe are mostly in a slight minus or around initial levels, while the prices of oil, gold and wheat recorded a decline.
Market attention is focused on new data on consumer confidence in Germany, as well as developments in retail sales in the UK. At the same time, yesterday’s central bank decisions brought stability to monetary policy in most of Europe. The European Central Bank, Norges Bank and the Swedish Riksbank kept interest rates unchanged, while the Bank of England lowered the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, to 3.75 percent.
At the same time, the ECB has revised upward the estimates of economic growth in the Eurozone, and now expects growth of 1.4 percent in 2025 and 1.2 percent in 2026.
On the stock exchanges, the Frankfurt DAX weakened slightly in the morning to 24,201.41 points, while the Paris CAC 40 fell to 8,156.99 points. London’s FTSE 100 also saw a minimal decline, while Moscow’s MOEX lost more than one percent of its value.
In contrast to Europe, the American stock market indices are showing growth ahead of today’s opening. Dow Jones rose to 47,951.85 points, S&P 500 to 6,774.76 points, while Nasdaq strengthened to 23,006.36 points.
On the energy markets, the price of European gas futures for January on the TTF exchange was EUR 28.035 per megawatt-hour. Oil prices continued their downward trend, with crude oil trading at $55,808, while Brent fell to $59,622 per barrel.
A decline was also recorded in the market of precious metals and agricultural raw materials. The price of gold fell to $4,323.56 an ounce, while wheat fell to $5.0548 a bushel.
On the currency market, the euro weakened against the US dollar, and was traded at the rate of 1.17091 dollars, which represents a drop of 0.12 percent compared to the beginning of trading, reports Tanjug.
