The Ibex stops the falls but is unable to assault the 9,400 points

2023-08-16 18:00:16

Caution is imposed in the financial markets with many doubts about the evolution of the economy after the summer. The increasingly evident slowdown in China is weighing heavily on investor sentiment and, after three days of falls, the Ibex-35 barely managed to advance 0.03% on Wednesday, without managing to recover 9,400 points.

Specifically, the indicator remained at 9,350 integers, despite the upward pull presented by large values ​​such as Naturgy (+1.23%), Aena (+1.01%) or Inditex (+1.01%). In the lower part of the table, bank values ​​stood out, with losses of 1% for CaixaBank, 0.67% in Bankinter or 0.3% for BBVA, Santander and Unicaja.

And that the market had positive references such as US retail sales, which posted growth of 0.7% in July, above the 0.4% expected and the 0.3% experienced the previous month.

Along these lines, the results of giants such as Target once again provide clues regarding the evolution of consumption, a fact that the Federal Reserve (Fed) takes into account when making its monetary policy decisions, as it is one of the the great engines of the American economy.

The department store chain achieved a profit of 835 million in the second quarter, much better than the 182 million in the same period of 2022. However, revenue closed below expectations after sales fell 2.3% in the semester.

This double reading is precisely what European investors were also expecting from the Fed minutes, which would be announced with the stock markets of the Old Continent already closed. For this reason, and waiting for that reference to be quoted, the market looked at the GDP data for the euro zone on Wednesday, which showed how activity continues to expand, growing by 0.3% in the second quarter of the year .

Among the bad news, that of the Netherlands, which contracted 0.3% in the period, entering a technical recession.

Meanwhile, in the raw materials market, the price of a barrel of Brent crude is trading flat at 85 dollars, while the US West Texas is around 81 dollars.