European markets were dominated by bearish trends yesterday as investor interest was focused on the latest economic data and interest rate levels as they are priced into the future. Data released late last week showed that the US economy added 517,000 new jobs, clearly outpacing forecasts of just 187,000 job gains. At the same time, unemployment in the superpower is at 3.4% and is a record low level over the past 53 years. In addition, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen yesterday expressed her assessment that the US economy can avoid recession if inflation remains low and the economy grows. As a result, investors see the Fed continuing to raise interest rates and consider that the Fed will start another 25 basis point hike in dollar interest rates at its next meeting. These estimates led to a new growth of the dollar and the retreat of the euro. In the euro area, the latest data from the Responsible Buying Index show that business activity returned to positive growth in January for the first time in six months.

The Paris CAC 40 index recorded its biggest decline yesterday, closing down 1.34%.

Thus, the pan-European Eurostoxx 600 index closed with a slight loss of 0.8%, while a significant decrease was recorded by shares of medical and pharmaceutical companies, as well as utilities. However, the largest drop was recorded in the retail sales sector, the corresponding index closed with a loss of 2.1%. London’s FTSE 100 ended with a slight loss of 0.82%, as did the Frankfurt Xetra DAX, which closed down 0.84%. The biggest losses among European markets yesterday were recorded by the Paris CAC 40 index, which closed down 1.34%, while the Milan FTSE MIB index lost only 0.27%. Meanwhile, the euro fell 0.6% against the dollar yesterday to settle at $1.0729, hitting its lowest level since January 12. It should be noted that under the weight of geopolitical risks, the Turkish lira registered a new decline yesterday, the rate of which amounted to $1 per 18.85 Turkish lira.