European stock markets rise after the start of the Fed president’s appearance

The European stock markets closed with increases after the beginning of the appearance of the president of the Federal Reserve (Fed) Jerome Powell before the House of Representatives, where he reiterated that the rate cut will come at some point in the year and that the decision will be made with “ care and consideration.”

The Madrid Stock Exchange rose 0.79%; Milan, 0.66%; London, 0.43%; Paris, 0.28% and Frankfurt, 0.1%.

For its part, the Euro Stoxx 50, which groups together the largest capitalization European companies, rose 0.46%, according to market data consulted by EFE.

Powell stated this Wednesday that the body will decide “with care and consideration” when to lower interest rates and assured that the Committee would like to see more data that confirms and makes them feel more confident that inflation is falling sustainably to 2%. .

In Europe, this Wednesday the IFO Institute of Economic Studies lowered its growth forecast for the German economy by five tenths and now estimates that the German GDP will grow this year by only 0.2% compared to 2023, when it contracted by 0.3 %, in line with the Government’s updated forecasts.

Furthermore, investors are awaiting the meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) which will make a decision on interest rates tomorrow, although the market expects it to maintain them at the current 4.5%.

In Asia, Hong Kong rose 1.7%, while Seoul fell 0.3%, Shanghai 0.26% and Tokyo 0.02%.

For its part, Wall Street opened this Wednesday in green and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, its main indicator, rose 0.39%; while the Nasdaq market composite index, where the main technology companies are listed, rose 0.81%.

The euro rose 0.46% at the close of the European stock markets and was exchanged for 1.09 dollars.

In the raw materials market, a barrel of Brent oil, a benchmark in Europe, rose 2.34% at the close of European stock markets to cost $83.96.

For its part, gold advanced 0.85% at the same time to cost 2,146.03 per ounce and after having registered maximums by touching 2,149.25 dollars per ounce at 3:48 p.m.

For its part, the ten-year German bond remained practically stable, with a slight drop of 0.2 basis points, to a yield of 2.31%.