US and Americas Markets
American markets Reagents will open today to the first televised debate between Donald Trump and Joe Bidenahead of the presidential elections, and which marked the formal start of the campaign.
Investors followed the Trump-Biden debate closely, and there seems to be a consensus on the conclusion: concern about Biden’s age and health, which has favored Trump.
Unlike previous debates, this one was held without a live audience and also featured muted microphones for the candidates during their opponent’s allotted speaking time, which prevented the chaos that characterized the first Trump-Biden debate from reigning in 2020.
The mutual animosity that both politicians profess was clear at the beginning of the debate, when they did not shake hands when they came out on stage at the CNN studio in Atlanta where the meeting was held.
Biden, at times, seemed to lose the thread of his words and stumbled at several pointscausing what some analysts described as “panic” within the Democratic Party.
Photo: Joe Biden in debate CNN/CNN Image
Both candidates accused each other of lying on issues ranging from veterans and the border to the state of the U.S. economy and inflation.
Trump, while repeating claims that have been proven false or avoiding answering questions, He repeatedly attacked Biden for his handling of the economy and his foreign policy record.as well as record numbers of immigrant arrivals.
Biden, for his part, pointed to Trump’s recent criminal conviction and repeated that his rival is “a threat to democracy.”
According to BBC North America editor Anthony Zurcher, Biden was on the ropes in many of the exchanges, particularly in the early part of the debate, due to his lapses and indecisions, in which topics such as the economy, immigration and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza were discussed.
Continue reading the story
According to Zurcher, some of Biden’s answers were confusing and unclear, “which will undoubtedly increase the concern of many Americans that he may be too old to be president.”
His hoarseness did not help Biden either, which made it difficult to understand some of his answers and which those responsible for his campaign attributed to a cold.
“But like a boxer on the ropes, Biden began landing big punches against his opponent in an attempt to turn the tide of the debate,” Zurcher said.
Biden, after recalling Trump’s conviction on charges stemming from an alleged relationship with adult film star Stormy Daniels, said the former president had “the morals of a stray cat.”
Trump also appeared defensive when discussing his response to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Washington Capitol and avoided answering some questionsrepeating false statements in some segments.
Photo: Donald Trump attacked Biden in debate/Image CNN
But according to Zurcher, on the issues of economy and immigration –the issues that American voters say in polls are most important to them– Trump was confident and clear in his attacks on Biden’s record, while the president’s rebuttals were less effective.
For his part, billionaire investor Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of the hadge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, commented emphatically that “Trump is going to win in a landslide. Trump has been strong and reasonable on important issues. He did not respond to Biden’s attacks… And yes, someone needs to take Democratic leadership other than him.”
On the other hand, in macro news, everything indicates that this Friday’s PCE data will show that US inflation slowed down in May compared to the previous monthwhich could give the Fed further impetus for a possible rate cut in 2024.
The overall PCE is expected to slow to 0.3% on a monthly basis, down from a 0.3% increase in April. Economists expect that the figure cooled from 2.7% to 2.6% in May in annual terms.
Asia-Pacific Stocks
The Asian stock marketsyes They ended the week with slight movements in a positive day for sectors such as services and energy and the view in Taiwan, a region that promises to boost the continent’s economy.
The Nikkei rose 0.5%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 0.4% and the Shanghai Composite gained 1.1%.
On the other hand, projections about Taiwan, home to the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturerswhich aims to become one of the “nerve centers” of the development of artificial intelligence (AI).
Taiwan has the technical capabilities to produce the most advanced semiconductors on the market, but its multiple energy challenges cast doubt on the future of its production model.
In fact, it remains the absolute leader in the production of these chips thanks to its flagship, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)a company that accounts for 60% of the global semiconductor manufacturing market and has Nvidia, AMD, Apple and Qualcomm among its main clients.
TSMC is building two new plants in Taiwan, specifically in the towns of Hsinchu (north) and Kaohsiung (south), where it will manufacture chips with two-nanometer processes starting in 2025.
These new factories require enormous amounts of energy to operate, and at this point concerns arise: the island depends excessively on imported fossil fuels and has not sufficiently developed its renewables, which only represent 9.5% of its total electricity generation.
European markets
lEuropean bags Today they are paying close attention to the progress of some relevant macroeconomic data and stock market news from companies with an impact in Latin America.
Today there will be important advance CPI data for June in countries like Spain, France, Italy and Portugal.
On the other hand, the investment holding company of the La Caixa Foundation, Criteria Caixahas achieved a 9.99% stake in Telefónica’s share capital through the acquisition of a 4.91% share block of the operator’s share capital.
This was reported this Friday by the entity to the supervisor of the Spanish stock market, the CNMV, in a statement that added that It has been proposed to reach a maximum of 10.01% of the share capital from the operator.
To do this, he adds, it will acquire “additional shares” when the administrative authorizations required to acquire an indirect participation in “certain regulated subsidiaries of Telefónica.”
Oil today
Oil prices They go up this Friday, on track for its third consecutive week of gainsas fears around supply disruptions in Russia and the Middle East have largely offset concerns about slowing demand.
WTI crude futures are up 0.8% at $82.36 a barrel, while Brent is up 0.7% at $85.84 a barrel.
Brent and WTI futures have gained almost 2% so far this week and both oil benchmarks are on track to post gains of around 6% in June.
Fear of a generalized war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon keeps us in suspense to markets over crude supply disruptions, while Ukraine’s attacks on major Russian fuel refineries also point to possible disruptions to oil supplies from Moscow.
Geopolitical conflicts have caused traders to assign a higher risk premium to oil prices. This offsets rising US crude stockpiles, which is fueling concerns about cooling US fuel demand as the world’s biggest oil consumer faces persistent inflation and high interest rates.
(The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, BBC, Investing, Valora Analitik).
—
