At the opening on Monday, February 27, 2023, European equity markets should hesitate. The Eurostoxx 50 opens at 4,178.82 points (-1.86%), the CAC 40 at 7,187.27 points (-1.78%), the DAX 40 at 15,209.74 points (-1.72%); the FTSE 100 at 7,878.66 points (-0.37%), the SMI at 11,181.77 points (-0.59%), the AEX at 746.41 points (-1.23%), the BEL 20 at 3,859.50 points (-0.75%), the IBEX 35 at 9,201.50 points (-0.33%), the DJIA at 32,816.92 points (-1.02%), the Nasdaq at 11,394.94 points (-1.69%), the S&P 500 at 3,970.04 points (-1.05%), and the Nikkei at 225 27.423,96 points (-0.11%).

With regard to exchange rates, the change from the close mentions that in New York, EUR/USD is at 1.0542 (-0.05%), EUR/JPY at 143.73 (-0.13%) and USD/JPY at 136.35 (-0.08%).

The annual results of the satellite operator SES are published this Monday.

After their strong fall on Friday, European equity markets are expected to open close to balance on Monday. American economic indicators have revived concerns about the Federal Reserve's (Fed) restrictive monetary policy.

The DAX 40 contract lost 12 points, or 0.1%, and the CAC 40 contract gained 2.1 points, at 7:40am according to data from the IG broker. The FTSE 100 contract increased by 20.8 points, or 0.3%.

While interest rates surged in the US bond market after the announcement of an acceleration of inflation in the United States in January, the New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Friday and completed its worst week since the start of the year. The S&P 500 lost 2.9%, the Dow Jones Index dropped 3.2% over the week and the Nasdaq Composite lost 3.7%. Investor enthusiasm is waning while inflation is proving to be more persistent than expected in the United States, where the economy is resilient. This allows the Fed to continue strong monetary tightening in order to ease price pressures.

The Nikkei Index closed down 0.1% in Tokyo. At the end of trading, the Hang Seng on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange lost 0.7%, while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.3%.

This morning, US Treasury bond yields are moving in a mixed manner after the release of higher-than-expected data on home sales and inflation in the United States on Friday. This suggests a continuation of the restrictive monetary policy carried out by the Fed.

According to Ben Emons, portfolio manager and head of fixed income at NewEdge Wealth LLC, “the end of commodity deflation is a strong sign that China's reopening is beginning to affect producer and consumer prices. The second chapter of pandemic-related inflation has opened, and this makes managing disinflation even more difficult.” The 10-year US Treasury rate fell 1 basis point to 3.939% and the 2-year bond rate increased 3 basis points to 4.836%.

The euro is losing ground against the dollar and the yen. The greenback fell slightly against the Japanese currency. UniCredit Research has indicated that the euro may continue to fall if inflation in the eurozone slows down in February, and approach the $1.05 threshold. The bank adds that they “expect the global inflation rate to fall to 8% year on year in February, and for core inflation to slow to 5.2% year on year, in preliminary data.” The overall inflation rate was 8.6% and the base rate was 5.3%. Statistics on inflation in the eurozone will be published on 2 March.

Amid uncertainty about whether OPEC will maintain its production quotas, crude oil futures fell in Asia on Monday. Goldman Sachs analysts believe that “booming demand in China and relatively stable non-OPEC supply will cause a market deficit starting in June, and force OPEC to back down from its June meeting on production cuts.” For OPEC leaders, the production cuts decided in October would continue throughout the rest of 2023. According to them, the Organization had always been cautious about increasing demand from China.

For its part, Commerzbank indicates that two Russian companies have announced that they plan to reduce exports in March, possibly due, at least in part, to low prices. For the bank, “if the signs that this is likely to happen multiply, and if the International Energy Agency's assessment of a fall in Russian production proves accurate, prices should rise.” The April contract on light sweet crude (WTI) traded on Nymex fell 40 cents to $75.93 per barrel, while the North Sea Brent contract of the same maturity fell 49 cents to $82.67 per barrel around 7:20 a.m.