The week of central banks began yesterday with a retreat in European stock markets, the three largest of which are gathering and will announce key decisions on interest rate levels. Yesterday, investors, chained mainly to the decisions of the US Federal Reserve and the ECB, were cautious. In anticipation of further rate hikes, European bonds fell, with German 10-year yields up six basis points to 2.29% and British 10-year yields up 4m bp. up to 3.36%. This was preceded by news that Spanish inflation had suddenly picked up after its recent decline, causing market rates to turn to how aggressive the ECB’s borrowing cost hike would be this time around. As for the 10-year US government bonds, their yield increased by two bp. reaching 3.53%.

The exception among European markets yesterday was London’s FTSE 100 index, which is made up mostly of extroverted companies, which ended up slightly up 0.25%. In contrast, Frankfurt’s Xetra DAX, which closed down 0.16%, as well as the Paris CAC 40, which closed down a slight 0.20%. Similarly, the Milan FTSE MIB closed with a slight loss of 0.37%. The pan-European Eurostoxx 600 fell 0.17%, losing some of the luster it acquired in January, when it posted its biggest gain in its history in the first month of the year.

Technology stocks suffered the biggest losses yesterday, with Prosus NV shares falling more than 5% after a massive sell-off of technology stocks in the Hong Kong market. Meanwhile, oil prices also fell yesterday, with Brent shedding 1.0% to $85.75 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate down 1.13% to $78.78 a barrel.