Wall Street recule face aux inquiétudes sur la consommation des ménages
La Bourse de New York a terminé en nette baisse jeudi, plombée par des prises de bénéfices et l’inquiétude des investisseurs face à une consommation des ménages en berne.Le Dow Jones a perdu 1,01%, l’indice Nasdaq 0,47% et l’indice élargi S&P 500 0,43%.Après le nouveau record, la veille en clôture, du S&P 500, “le marché a repris son souffle” jeudi, les investisseurs s’adonnant “à des prises de bénéfices”, a estimé auprès de l’AFP Patrick O’Hare, de Briefing.com.Les acteurs de la place américaine “se sont aussi un peu inquiétés du fait que le marché se négocie à un niveau trop haut”, a jugé l’analyste.Le marché d’actions est également “en forte baisse à la suite de la publication des résultats décevants (…) de Walmart”, a ajouté dans une note Jose Torres, d’Interactive Brokers.La chaîne américaine d’hypermarchés Walmart a fait légèrement mieux qu’attendu au quatrième trimestre de son exercice décalé, profitant notamment de l’essor du commerce sur internet, mais ses prévisions volontairement “prudentes” ont refroidi le marché.Pour l’année, il anticipe une croissance de 3% à 4% de son chiffre d’affaires et un bénéfice par action de 2,51 dollars (2,50 à 2,60 hors effets de change).Avant la publication de jeudi, le consensus de FactSet tablait sur un bénéfice par action proforma de 2,77 dollars pour l’exercice.En conséquence, l’action de l’enseigne a lâché 6,53% et plusieurs distributeurs ont été entraînés dans ce recul: Costco a perdu 2,61%, Target a baissé de 2,00%, Kroger s’est replié de 1,62%. Le géant du commerce en ligne Amazon a lui abandonné 1,65%.Les investisseurs ont accueilli les résultats de Walmart quelques jours seulement après que le département du Commerce a annoncé le plus gros recul mensuel en près de deux ans de la consommation des ménages aux Etats-Unis en janvier.Avec ses prévisions, “Walmart, un baromètre des dépenses de consommation, a tiré une nouvelle fois la sonnette d’alarme, alors que les tensions commerciales croissantes menacent de faire grimper le coût des marchandises”, a estimé Jose Torres.Sur le marché obligataire, le rendement des emprunts d’Etat américains à dix ans se détendait à 4,50% contre 4,53% la veille.Vendredi, l’attention du marché se portera sur la publication des données d’activité PMI Flash “qui aideront le marché à mieux comprendre si le secteur de l’industrie gagne du terrain et si le secteur des services perd de la vitesse”, anticipe Patrick O’Hare.Les investisseurs accueilleront également la publication des ventes de logement anciens avant séance.Ailleurs, à la cote, les croisiéristes ont pâti des annonces du nouveau secrétaire au Commerce, Howard Lutnick, qui a assuré dans une interview à Fox News que les armateurs “ne paient pas d’impôt” et que cela allait “prendre fin”. Carnival a lâché 5,86%, Royal Caribbean Cruises 7,62%, Norwegian Cruise Line 4,89% et Viking Holdings 3,05%.Le géant chinois du commerce en ligne Alibaba a gagné du terrain (+8,09%), poussé par des résultats trimestriels au-dessus des attentes du marché, signe de sa relative bonne passe actuelle après plusieurs déconvenues.L’entreprise de Hangzhou (est de la Chine) possède certaines des plateformes de e-commerce les plus utilisées du pays (notamment Taobao), ce qui fait de ses performances un indicateur très scruté du moral des consommateurs.Le fabricant de jouets Hasbro s’est envolé (+12,95%) grâce à des résultats globalement meilleurs qu’attendu. L’entreprise a notamment présenté une nouvelle stratégie pour stimuler ses ventes annuelles.La chaîne de hamburgers Shake Shack, qui a publié des résultats globalement au-dessus des attentes, a pris de la vitesse (+11,13%), poussée par de bonnes ventes.
Stocks mostly fall on tepid Walmart outlook, geopolitical worries
Global stock markets mostly fell on Thursday and gold hit a record high as traders fretted over the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a pivot in Washington’s policy on Ukraine.Wall Street indices fell after retail behemoth Walmart issued a lackluster forecast. Shares of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase fell three percent or more, dragging on major indices.US indices opened lower and spent the entire session in negative territory. But the S&P 500, which finished at a record the last two days, dropped 0.4 percent, well above its session lows — a sign of resilience.”Whenever there’s been trouble in the market, buyers have showed up,” said Adam Sarhan from 50 Park Investments, who attributed the weakness in bank shares to profit-taking.Tensions between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump over the US President’s outreach to Moscow have exploded this week, rattling leaders in Europe.Uncertainty about Ukraine and Russia adds to anxiety over Trump’s myriad tariff actions and worries about lingering inflation.”Investors are mulling the impact of interest rates staying higher for longer, given that policymakers expect US trade policy to push up the price of consumer goods,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. Paris stocks managed to end the day with a small gain but Frankfurt and London both slid lower.Geopolitical uncertainty also led gold to hit a fresh record above $2,954 as investors rushed into the safe-haven commodity, which is sought out in times of uncertainty.Asian markets struggled on Thursday.Shanghai managed to pare back early losses to end flat after Trump suggested on Wednesday that a trade deal with China was “possible.”Hong Kong dropped more than one percent as the China tech surge came to an end.Tokyo was weighed down by a stronger yen, which broke below 150 per dollar as the Bank of Japan eyes more interest rate hikes.Among individual companies, Boeing slumped 2.8 percent after President Trump said he was looking at “alternatives” to the company’s Air Force One operation because of delivery delays.- Key figures around 2130 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 1.0 percent at 44,176.65 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.4 percent at 6,117.52 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 19,962.36 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.6 percent at 8,662.97 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 8,122.58 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.5 percent at 22,314.65 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.2 percent at 38,678.04 (close) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.6 percent at 22,576.98 (close)Shanghai – Composite: FLAT at 3,350.78 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0505 from $1.0423 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2668 from $1.2586Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.65 from 151.47 yenEuro/pound: UP at 82.90 pence from 82.81 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $72.57 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $76.48 per barrelburs-jmb/aha
Le congrès du Parti socialiste aura lieu les 13, 14 et 15 juin
Le Congrès du Parti socialiste aura lieu les 13, 14 et 15 juin, a-t-on appris auprès du parti, réuni en bureau national jeudi soir.Ce congrès national sera précédé d’un premier vote des adhérents pour le texte d’orientation du parti (qui définit la ligne stratégique) le 27 mai, avant un deuxième vote le 5 juin pour désigner le premier secrétaire.Le lieu du congrès n’est pas encore choisi. Il le sera le 4 mars, lors d’un conseil national (parlement du parti, ndlr), qui convoquera officiellement le congrès.Le patron du PS Olivier Faure est candidat à sa propre succession, pour “trancher la ligne”, a-t-il indiqué dimanche. Il avait pris la tête du parti au sortir de la déconfiture de 2017 et du quinquennat de François Hollande, il y a sept ans. Les opposants à Olivier Faure réclamaient depuis plusieurs mois la tenue de ce congrès, deux ans après celui de Marseille, où le parti s’était divisé entre la ligne d’Olivier Faure, défendant une alliance avec le reste de la gauche y compris La France insoumise, et celle du maire de Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, anti-LFI. Olivier Faure l’avait emporté de justesse, et son concurrent avait été nommé Premier secrétaire délégué. Après avoir fait opérer à son parti une mue réformiste ces dernières semaines en négociant avec le gouvernement Bayrou sur le budget et en refusant de censurer, Olivier Faure a pris ses distances avec LFI, mais continue de plaider pour un rassemblement de la gauche.Si aucun opposant ne s’est encore officiellement déclaré, M. Mayer-Rossignol a indiqué son intention de repartir dans la bataille. L’ex-président François Hollande, revenu dans l’arène politique en retrouvant son siège de député de Corrèze en juin dernier, plaide pour le départ d’Olivier Faure et entend soutenir un candidat partisan d’une rupture définitive avec LFI. La maire de Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, opposante historique d’Olivier Faure, pourrait faire partie des prétendants, tout comme le député Philippe Brun, qui défend une “ligne populaire”, ou le chef des députés socialistes Boris Vallaud, proche de la ligne d’Olivier Faure et que beaucoup pressent de se présenter.Le Bureau national du PS a également adopté une circulaire fixant au 3 avril la désignation des chefs de file pour les municipales, dans les villes où le PS est dans l’opposition ou minoritaire dans la majorité, mais aussi dans les villes où le maire socialiste sortant a déjà officiellement annoncé qu’il ne se représentait pas.Cela concerne donc Paris, où Anne Hidalgo laisse la main après deux mandats, sur fond de divisions entre deux prétendants, son poulain le sénateur Rémi Féraud, et son concurrent le député Emmanuel Grégoire.Mais les fédérations locales peuvent demander une dérogation exceptionnelle pour fixer le vote des militants à une autre date. Ce qui devrait être le cas pour la capitale.Pour les villes ayant un maire sortant qui se représente (ou un maire qui annonce plus tard qu’il ne se représente pas), un vote des militants est fixé au 6 novembre.
Musk in X spat with Danish astronaut over ‘abandoned’ ISS crew
The world’s richest man Elon Musk got into a heated row Thursday with a Danish astronaut who criticized the tech billionaire’s claim that former president Joe Biden intentionally abandoned two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station.Andreas “Andy” Mogensen had shared on X a Fox News clip featuring Musk and his boss, US President Donald Trump, where Musk claimed NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were left stranded on the orbital outpost for “political reasons” by Biden, and that the new administration was now coming to the rescue.”What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media,” wrote the 48-year-old European Space Agency astronaut, who has flown to the ISS twice, including aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule during a 2023 mission.Musk responded by calling Mogensen “fully retarded,” adding that “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago” and that he had made such an offer to the Biden administration, without elaborating on what that offer entailed.Wilmore and Williams flew to the ISS in June aboard a Boeing Starliner for what was meant to be an eight-day test mission to certify the new spaceship. But thruster problems led NASA to decide that Starliner should return without its crew, and the agency tasked SpaceX with bringing the veteran astronauts home.NASA then announced the pair would return on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission’s spaceship, which launched in September with a crew of two instead of four in order to accommodate them. The voyage home was initially scheduled for February but later shifted to March due to delays by SpaceX in preparing the spacecraft for Crew-10, whose crew will replace Crew-9’s.If there was an alternate rescue plan that could have been executed sooner, Musk has not revealed it.”Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla,” Mogensen replied to Musk’s missive.”You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”
US Senate confirms Trump loyalist Kash Patel to head FBI
The Republican-controlled US Senate on Thursday confirmed Kash Patel, a staunch loyalist who has threatened to go after President Donald Trump’s political enemies, as director of the FBI, the country’s top law enforcement agency.Patel, 44, whose nomination sparked fierce but ultimately futile opposition from Democrats, was approved by a 51-49 vote.The vote was split along party lines with the exception of two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who voted not to confirm Patel to head the 38,000-strong Federal Bureau of Investigation.Patel drew fire from Democrats for his promotion of conspiracy theories, his defense of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and his vow to root out members of a supposed “deep state” plotting to oppose the Republican president.Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, in a Senate speech opposing Patel’s nomination, said he is “dangerously, politically extreme” and has “repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies.”The Senate has approved all of Trump’s cabinet picks so far, underscoring his iron grip on the Republican Party.Among them is Tulsi Gabbard, confirmed as the nation’s spy chief despite past support for adversarial nations including Russia and Syria, and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be health secretary.Patel, in a statement on X, said he was honored to become the FBI director. “The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice,” he said.”The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust — but that ends today,” he added. “My mission as Director is clear: let good cops be cops — and rebuild trust in the FBI.”And to those who seek to harm Americans — consider this your warning,” he said. “We will hunt you down in every corner of this planet.”- ‘Enemies list’ -Patel replaces Christopher Wray, who was named FBI chief by Trump during his first term.Relations between Wray and Trump became strained, however, and though he had three years left in his 10-year tenure, Wray resigned after Trump won November’s presidential election.A son of Indian immigrants and former federal prosecutor, the New York-born Patel served in several high-level posts during Trump’s first administration, including as senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council.There were fiery exchanges at Patel’s confirmation hearing last month as Democrats brought up a list of 60 supposed “deep state” actors — all critics of Trump — he included in a 2022 book, whom he said should be investigated or “otherwise reviled.”Patel has denied having an “enemies list” and told the Senate Judiciary Committee he was merely interested in bringing lawbreakers to book.”All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,” he said.The FBI has been in turmoil since Trump took office and a number of agents have been fired or demoted including some involved in the prosecutions of Trump for seeking to overturn the 2020 election results and mishandling classified documents.Nine FBI employees have sued the Justice Department seeking to block efforts to collect information on agents who were involved in investigating Trump and the Capitol riot.In their complaint, the FBI agents said the efforts were part of a “purge” orchestrated by Trump as “politically motivated retribution.”Trump, on his first day in the White House, pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who stormed Congress in a bid to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Israel denounces Hamas as ‘monsters’ for staging of hostage bodies handover
Thousands of mourning Israelis observed a moment of silence Thursday in honour of four dead hostages returned by Hamas, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the group as “monsters” for staging a public handover of their bodies in Gaza.Hamas said the remains included those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, who for many Israelis had come to symbolise the hostages’ ordeal since their abduction on October 7, 2023.It was the first handover of bodies under the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, prompting scenes that were in sharp contrast to the ones of collective relief that accompanied past releases of living hostages.A crowd gathered in the Tel Aviv plaza dubbed “Hostages Square” Thursday night for a rally in solidarity with the families of the dead hostages.Attendees bowed their heads and choked back tears as they observed a minute of silence in memory of the deceased.At around the same time, police in central Israel reported a “suspected terror attack”, saying three bombs had exploded on or around buses and more were being defused, though no injuries were immediately reported.Earlier in the day, Palestinian militants staged a ceremony to return the bodies of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, as well as a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, at a former cemetery in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.Ahead of the handover, Hamas and members of other armed Palestinian groups displayed four black coffins on a stage.  Each casket bore a small photo of the deceased, while mock-up missiles nearby carried the message: “They were killed by USA bombs,” a reference to Israel’s top military supplier.Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed the Bibas family early in the war, but Israel has never confirmed the claim. “We are all enraged at the monsters of Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said in a video message, vowing again to destroy the group. The United Nations also slammed what it called the “abhorrent and cruel” staging of the event.The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage and prisoner releases so far, called for handovers of bodies “to be done privately out of utmost respect for the deceased and those left grieving”.- Bus blasts -Israeli police said Thursday evening three bombs had detonated and two were being disabled at separate locations after blasts rocked the central city of Bat Yam.”These are identical explosive devices with a timer,” a police spokesman told AFP.Television footage aired by some Israeli networks showed burnt and burning buses, while some outlets reported bus drivers countrywide had been asked to stop and inspect their vehicles for other devices.Large numbers of police had been deployed to search for suspects, the police statement said.Defence Minister Israel Katz said that following the “serious attempted attacks”, he had “instructed the IDF (military) to intensify operations to thwart terrorism in the Tulkarem refugee camp and in all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria”, using the biblical term for the occupied West Bank.- The youngest hostage -Earlier in the day, flag-waving Israelis had lined the route along which a convoy carrying the hostages’ bodies travelled from southern Israel to Tel Aviv.Tania Coen Uzzielli, 59, who had come to Hostages Square early, said it was “one of the hardest days, I think, since October 7”.The National Institute of Forensic Medicine, where the bodies were taken, confirmed that Lifshitz — 83 at the time of his capture and a veteran journalist and peace activist — was among those handed over. It did not confirm the identities of the other three, however, saying on Thursday evening that it “continues the identification process”.During their October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, Hamas filmed and later broadcast footage showing the Bibas family’s abduction from their home near the Gaza border.Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old. Yarden Bibas, the boys’ father and Shiri’s husband, was abducted separately and released in a previous hostage-prisoner swap on February 1.Hamas said in a statement that it and its armed wing had done “everything in their power to protect the prisoners (hostages) and preserve their lives”.Tahani Fayad, 40, was among the hundreds of people gathered to witness the handover ceremony in Gaza, which she called “proof that the occupation will not defeat us”.- Next phase -The bodies’ repatriation is part of the six-week initial phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on January 19.Under the first phase, militants have so far freed 19 living Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.Of the remaining 14 Gaza hostages eligible for release under phase one, Israel says eight are dead.Israel and Hamas announced a deal earlier this week for the return of the eight hostages’ remains in two groups this week and next, as well as the release of the six living Israeli captives on Saturday.Palestinian prisoners are also set to be freed in Saturday’s swap, but were not part of Thursday’s handover.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said talks will begin this week on the truce’s second phase, aiming to lay out a more permanent end to the war.A Hamas spokesman on Thursday accused Netanyahu of “procrastinating regarding the second phase”, saying the group was “ready to engage”.Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during phase two.Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack. Prior to Thursday’s handover, there were 70 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.