Equity markets should continue to fall before the PMI indices and while waiting for the Fed. The Eurostoxx 50 opens at 4,229.56 points (-1.63%), the CAC 40 at 7,068.59 points (-1.75%), the DAX 40 at 15,603.88 points (-1.94% ), the FTSE 100 at 7,494.13 points (-1.20%), the SMI at 12,355.54 points (-1.63%), the AEX at 763.70 points (-1.87%), the BEL 20 at 4,148.79 points (-1.65%), IBEX 35 at 8,694.70 points (-1.36%), DJIA at 34,265.37 points (-1.30%), Nasdaq at 13,768.92 points (-2.72%), the S&P 500 at 4,397.94 points (-1.89%) and the Nikkei 225 at 27,588.37 points (+0.24%).

Regarding the exchange rate, the variation from the close in New York indicates that the EUR/USD opens at 1.1327 (-0.17%), the EUR/JPY at 129.03 (+0.02%) and USD/JPY at 113.92 (+0.20%).

European equity markets are expected to continue their decline on Monday, at the dawn of a week marked by a highly anticipated meeting of the US Federal Reserve (Fed). At 7:35 a.m., the CAC 40 futures contract lost 15 points, or 0.2%, according to data from broker IG Markets. The DAX 40 contract was down 41 points, or 0.3%, and the FTSE 100 contract was down 14 points, or 0.2%.

Pending the Fed, investors will focus Monday on the PMI indices of the manufacturing sector and services in the euro zone and the United States. These leading indicators, among the first to cover the month of January, should allow investors to measure the repercussions of the Omicron surge on demand, supply and prices in Europe and the United States. Wall Street ended sharply lower on Friday and posted its worst weekly performance since March 2020, at the very start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dow Jones Index (DJIA) fell 1.3% on Friday to 34,265.37 points, and the broader S&P 500 index lost 1.9% to 4,397.94 points. The Nasdaq index, rich in technology stocks, fell 2.7% to 13,768.92 points. For the week as a whole, the DJIA fell 4.6%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell 5.7% and 7.6% respectively.

Investors fear a more marked tightening than expected of the Fed's monetary policy in response to a sharp acceleration in inflation in recent months. The US central bank meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and should prepare investors for an interest rate hike in March. Some market participants are now pricing in a 50 basis point hike in the fed funds rate, rather than 25 basis points. In Asia, the main markets are moving in dispersed order on Monday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 0.2%. The Hang Seng of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange lost 1.1% at the end of the session, while the Shanghai Composite index gleaned 0.1%.

The yield on the ten-year US Treasury bond, the market's benchmark, rose slightly on Monday morning to 1.770%. According to CME Group's Fed Watch tool, investors estimate a nearly 70% chance that the Fed will raise the federal funds rate by at least one percentage point by the end of the year. This rate is currently in a range of 0% to 0.25%.

The rise in bond yields is explained by signals suggesting that the Fed will be more restrictive than previously expected in order to respond to stubbornly high inflation.

The euro retreated Monday morning against the dollar, while the market remains concerned about the prospect of a tightening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve.

Oil prices rose on Monday morning, buoyed by signs of tight supply, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) produced 747,000 barrels per day below its monthly quota in December, ANZ said. At 7:25 a.m., the March North Sea Brent contract was up 57 cents, at $88.46 a barrel. The same-maturity contract on light sweet crude oil (WTI) listed on the Nymex took 52 cents, at 85.66 dollars a barrel.