The picture of the market yesterday was mixed, especially influenced by the latest inflation data in France and Spain, which show that it is more tied to high levels than initially thought. However, the pan-European STOXX 600 ended yesterday for the second consecutive month of growth, supported by shares of banking groups, which are vulnerable to changes in interest rates. Yesterday, the STOXX 600 ended the session down 0.3%, down -0.74% on the FTSE 100 in London, down -0.11% on the Frankfurt DAX and down -0.38% on the CAC 40 in Paris, while the FTSE MIB in Milan closed with an increase of 0.12. % and IBEX in Madrid with 0.86%. “Whether it is Spain, France or Germany, the European Central Bank should basically take into account the fact that there is constant inflation here, because we are talking about three of the four largest economies in Europe,” emphasizes Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK . Higher food prices pushed the annual index in France up to 7.2% in February from 7% in January. In Spain, respectively, the index strengthened by 6.1% from 5.9% year on year in January.

Investors expect the ECB to raise interest rates by 50 basis points at its next meeting, so if this happens, the key rate will reach 3%. Meanwhile, analysts and market participants predict that the interest rate will jump to 4% in July, which is unprecedented in the history of the euro. All attention is now focused on preliminary data on consumer prices in the Eurozone, which are expected tomorrow on Thursday and will concern February. The bond market also saw a rise in euro zone government bond yields yesterday, with 10-year German bond yields reaching 2.65%, the highest level since 2011.

Financial group stocks, which are generally favored by higher interest rate conditions, added 1.4% yesterday and briefly rose to their highest level since 2018 – and we put together the IBEX index. Finally, the euro was down 0.2% against the dollar to $1.0591.