New York (AFP)

Global markets quietly ended a week of strong gains on Friday, boosted by the prospect of Democrat Joe Biden landing in the White House and sharing power with a Republican senatorial majority.

Wall Street ended up close to equilibrium: the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.24%, the broad S&P index 0.03%, while the Nasdaq gleaned 0.04%.

Over the week, the progression of the three indices is the most important since the beginning of April.

At the close, the European stock markets were generally down, Paris losing 0.46%, Frankfurt 0.70%, Milan 0.25%, Madrid 0.78%.

London for its part advanced 0.07%.

But these stock markets posted their strongest weekly gains since early June.

Asia also rose strongly, with the Nikkei index in Tokyo soaring by nearly 6%.

"A remarkable week", sums up Alexandre Baradez, analyst for IG France, "quite the opposite of what one would have expected" in a context of very strong uncertainties on the outcome of the American presidential election and in full global pandemic.

Profit-taking Friday did not particularly tarnish the euphoria of the markets this week, driven by the prospect of a Democratic presidency and a Republican Senate in the United States.

This trend was further reinforced when former Vice President Joe Biden took the lead in key Pennsylvania on Friday against Donald Trump.

- High income -

The likely setup of a Democratic president grappling with strong Republican parliamentary opposition has investors hoping that tax hikes for businesses and top incomes will be postponed, or that new regulations will be harder to see during the day, especially in a context of health crisis.

"If the Senate remains under Republican control, as is very likely, anything that closely or remotely resembles a somewhat radical Democratic initiative will be fought. This goes for appointments to key positions in administration, tax policy , regulations, health insurance, environmental issues ", according to an analysis by Oddo BHF.

This scenario "will reduce the likelihood of a large-scale fiscal support plan" on the one hand, but on the other, "will again put pressure on the Fed to support the recovery through 'an expansion of its massive asset purchase plan, "said Franklin Pichard, director of Kiplink Finance.

The powerful Federal Reserve assured Thursday that it was ready to open again, and as much as necessary, its toolbox, to allow the world's largest economy to withstand the health crisis that caused a sharp slowdown in activity .

- Confinement -

Because the hour is serious despite the stock market surges: the United States has just recorded a record of new cases of Covid-19 with 120,000 positive cases, an increase also observed in Europe where containment measures will weigh on growth in last trimestre.

However, good news came to bring positive signals to the US economy on Friday: job creations for October were above expectations and the unemployment rate below.

On the debt market, the sovereign rates of France and Germany rose a little, more clearly on the American side.

Around 9:30 p.m. GMT, the dollar lost 0.47% against the euro, to 1.1879 dollars to the euro, and fell 0.35% against the yen, to 103.30 yen to the dollar.

Very volatile this week with the US election in sight, the oil market ended up in the red: the price of a barrel of US crude WTI for delivery in December dropped 4.2% to 37.14 dollars, and that of a barrel of London Brent for January lost 3.6% to 39.45 dollars.

However, prices rose by around 4% and 5% over the week.

Gold prices rose 3.9% over the week, settling late Friday at $ 1,952.06 an ounce, and bitcoin 12.5%, at $ 15,576.

On the stock front, tech companies are emerging as the big winners this week.

In Germany, Infineon jumped by 10%, in France World and STMicroelectronics, in the wake of their big American sisters on Wall like Facebook (+ 13%) (+ 9%). 9%).

burx-alb-dho / lo / lb

© 2020 AFP