The major european stock exchanges They closed in the red this Friday after a week marked by great volatility due to the tightening of the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and the tensions between Moscow and Washington over Ukraine.
In Frankfurt, the index DAX fell 1.32% while the CAC 40 Paris fell 0.82 percent.
In London, the index FTSE decreased 1.17% at the end of the last week of January. In Spain, the IBEX35 it also closed down 1.10% and close behind, the FTSE MIB Milan index was down 1.18%.
European markets closed on Friday after a volatile week in which the Fed confirmed an interest rate hike for March.
This week was also marked by diplomatic negotiations between Russia and Western countries over Ukraine.
In addition, Germany and France announced this Friday the results of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While French growth reached 7% in 2021, German GDP contracted by 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2021.
European stocks fell and the index STOXX 600 suffered a drop for the fourth consecutive week that was led by the auto manufacturing and technology sectors, given a panorama of interest rate hikes in the United States and concerns about the crisis in Ukraine.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 1.0%, although it pared some of the decline after falling as much as 2% earlier. The benchmark fell 1.8% this week, its worst performance in more than two months.
Euro zone bond yields rose after the aggressive message that emerged from the monetary policy meeting of the Federal Reserve from the United States in the middle of the week.
“There’s a lot that’s making investors nervous right now and today seems to be the day that European markets are really waking up to what the Fed’s increasingly hawkish stance will mean,” said Danni Hewson, financial analyst by AJ Bell.
On the geopolitical front, Russia sent its strongest signal yet on Friday that it is willing to compromise on US security proposals and reiterated that it does not want to start a conflict in Ukraine.
In European markets, one of the biggest declines by sector occurred in technology, which closed down 1.7%, its worst month since 2008.
Car shares fell 1.8%, with shares in Volvo which suffered a 3.5% decline after the Swedish truck maker reported lower fourth-quarter profit and proposed a lower-than-expected dividend.
Meanwhile, the papers of the luxury goods group LVMH rose 3.2% after announcing that its quarterly sales growth accelerated, while shares of Signify NV, the world’s largest maker of lighting products, jumped 11.0% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profit.
