Before the bell: again buyers in China

Oil prices record the strongest week-on-week rise since early 2023, ship shares go deeper and the German stock market welcomes a newcomer.

With the S&P 500 losing 0.2% and the Nasdaq unchanged, Wall Street appears to be reacting all in all coolly to the situation in the Middle East. Oil prices, on the other hand, are moving. A barrel of crude oil is already costing 4% more. That price increase came after President Biden admitted that talks have been held about a possible attack on Iranian oil facilities. On a weekly basis, oil prices rose 8%. It has been since March last year that oil prices rose so sharply in one week. Mobil Oil shares were able to rise 0.9%. On a weekly basis, the gain was 7.3%. IBM became 1.4% more expensive. On Tuesday, that company opened its first European quantum data center near Stuttgart. Tesla again went 3.4% lower. In one week, 6.9% went off its share price. European stocks lost an average of 0.9% yesterday. In Paris, the index lost 1.3%. Contractors Vinci (-2.8%) and Bouygues (-4.8%) and carmakers Renault (-2.1%) and Stellantis (-4.1%) had a tough day. The Bel20 lost 0.6%. Argenx (+0.5%) and UCB (+0.7%) went against the grain.

In Tokyo, stock prices are up an average of 0.2% this morning. In Hong Kong, in contrast to yesterday, buying is again brisk. The Hang Seng index is up 1.9%. Alibaba gains 3.2%. Later, at 2:30 p.m. Belgian time, US labor market figures will be published. Economists count on growth in the number of new jobs in September and also assume that the US unemployment rate will stabilize at 4.2%. 

The Bear Boat 

In some countries, there is traditionally a lot of strike action, but the protests hardly achieve anything. Elsewhere, for example in the U.S., strikes are rare but have an impact. After barely three days on strike, employers and workers at the US port have reached an agreement on a wage increase. Consequently, a scarcity in ship transportation will not occur. The effect on stock markets is not small. Speculators are throwing their shares of shipping companies out of their portfolios again. In Taiwan and Japan, the shares of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (-6.7%), Evergreen Marine (-8.6%), Yang Ming Marine (-9.2%), Nippon Yusen (-9.2%) and Wan Hai Lines (-10%) are falling sharply.

Stock market debut

Frankfurt welcomes a newcomer this morning. Investors can trade shares of Springer Nature there for the first time. That publisher is best known for its academic publications, such as the journal Nature. Last year, the group posted sales of 1.85 billion euros and an operating profit of 511 million euros. At an introductory price of 22.5 euros per share, the company is valued at 4.5 billion euros. The IPO price range was 21 to 23.5 euros per share.

Did you know…

you can read articles in Nature and other Springer Nature publications for free? It seems bizarre that a publisher that will soon be publicly traded is offering its reading material for free. But the company does have a revenue model. Does a prof want to publish an article? Then the university can expect a hefty invoice from Springer Nature for it.

This article was translated from Dutch and was originally published on Spaarvarkens.be.