By Mike Dolan
Oct 20 (Reuters) – After a week of street riots and protests in France, the country’s stocks and bonds are on edge, even as curfews in parts of Paris overnight appear to have restored some calm.
Such unrest rarely hits macro markets for long, if at all, but these events come at a difficult moment for France.
French bond markets have suffered more than those of other G7 countries in the global debt selloff in recent months, as the country struggles to pass a government budget just to keep a lid on ballooning deficits and faces presidential elections next April.
The street unrest amplifies the sense of political stasis and may even drag on already downbeat French economic soundings as well. There’s no money in the public purse to offer as a sop to the protests.
French debt yields hit fresh 24-year highs on Monday and risk spreads versus Germany neared the peaks of the past month. French stocks underperformed, with banks at the sharp end, and they slipped again on Tuesday morning.
There has been some minor contagion to other euro zone debt markets but the euro slipped only marginally on Monday and has firmed again since.
Back on Wall Street, tech stocks grabbed a toehold on Monday after a bruising week – with some recovery in chip and AI-related indexes, as Netflix and SpaceX top Tuesday’s earnings calendar.
But there was renewed selling of tech names in Asia overnight, with South Korea’s chip-heavy KOSPI on the slide again and an IPO from local data center builder Elice bombing 30% on its market debut.
That refocuses attention on so-called “neocloud” companies at the heart of the AI buildout after US data center firm CoreWeave plummeted last week.
Meantime, Brent crude oil prices continue to probe five-month highs above $111 per barrel on Middle East violence, while four-year highs for European natural gas prices on the darkening Ukraine conflict are adding to the French tensions across the region.
US Treasury yields appear to be tracking nervy stock markets closely, pushing higher yesterday on the small bounce in tech and also eyeing edgy energy prices.
CHART OF THE DAY
President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to a record low of 31% in the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Some 68% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to the poll, including 37% of self-identified Republicans.
TODAY’S EVENTS TO WATCH
• US corporate earnings: SpaceX, Netflix, General Motors, GE Aerospace
• US September housing starts (8:30 a.m. EDT)
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