Wall Street is expected hesitant and European stock markets are rising mid-session on Friday, the trump administration's choice to deprive the Federal Reserve of hundreds of billions of dollars supposed to support the economy worrying American investors while the hope of an easing of the lockdown likely to promote the recovery benefits stocks on the other side of the Atlantic.

Futures on New York's major indexes are signaling a Wall Street open down 0.2% for the Dow Jones and the Standard & Poor's 500 by 0.1% while the Nasdaq is up 0.15%

In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.55% to 5,504.47 points around 11:55 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 is up 0.51% and in Frankfurt, the Dax is up 0.43%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index is up 0.58%, the FTSEurofirst 300 is up 0.5% and the Stoxx 600 is up 0.51%.

European markets welcome, among other things, the unexpected 1.2% increase in retail sales in the United Kingdom in October but also the prospect of an easing of restrictions in the coming weeks in several countries.

The mood is different in the United States, due to signs of acceleration of the second wave of the pandemic but especially after the announcement by the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, of a request for restitution by the Fed of $ 455 billion (384 billion euros) that was to be devoted s to support the private sector and local authorities in the face of the crisis.

"This surprise decision puts the Treasury in opposition to the Federal Reserve, which had said it would prefer an extension of this mechanism," note the heads of strategy at UBS Global Wealth Management.

The choice of the Treasury obscures the announcement by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the US Senate of an agreement to resume talks on a stimulus plan.

The Stoxx 600 is currently up 1.15% on the week and the CAC 40 is up 2.31%, both heading for a third weekly performance in a row, which would be a first since early June.

According to weekly data from Bank of America and EPFR, the recent surge in risk appetite resulted in an inflow of $27 billion into equity funds in one week, for an unprecedented $71.4 billion in two weeks.

VALUES IN EUROPE

The prevailing optimism on European stock exchanges primarily benefited the commodities sector, whose Stoxx index gained 1.61% and the oil and gas index (+1.41%), thanks to the rise in barrel and base metals prices, and distribution (+1.12%).

German e-commerce specialist Zalando gained 1.49% after saying it expects growth to accelerate next year.

Also noteworthy was the increase in the Italian banks BPER Banca (+4.42%) and Banco BPM (+3.77%) after Unipol, BPER's largest shareholder, declared a merger between the two groups.

On the downside, the British software publisher Sage fell 13.3% after reporting a decline in its annual operating profit.

rate

Steven Mnuchin's decision favours lower bond yields: ten-year US Treasuries are down just over a basis point to 0.8455%, continuing the trend of recent days, which is expected to result in a decline of about five points over the week.

Its German equivalent, the benchmark for the euro zone, returns to -0.575% after a nine-day low of -0.582%; its decline is also explained by the political deadlock on the European recovery fund, which discussions between heads of state and government on Thursday did not resolve.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Spreads are limited in the currency market for the last session of the week, even if the decision of the US Treasury tends to push the dollar higher.

The index, which measures the movements of the greenback against a reference basket, is currently down about 0.45% over the week after a rise of just over 0.5% last week.

The euro, at 1.1872 dollars, meanwhile takes about 0.3% in five sessions.

petroleum

The oil market continues to benefit from hopes raised by the latest news on vaccine candidates from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and it is also heading for its third straight weekly rise.

Brent gained 0.9% to $44.60 a barrel and U.S. light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) gained 0.62% to $42. Both are heading for a jump of about 4% over the whole week.