(BFM Bourse) – Deprived of records, the Paris Bourse still manages to end up in the green. The CAC 40 is up slightly by 0.2% at the close, in a market that has to digest a lot of information.
After having evolved without much direction for a good part of the session, the Paris Stock Exchange took up a few fractions at the end of the course. The CAC 40 closes up a small 0.21% at 7,549.44 points on Wednesday evening. Unlike the previous days, today’s session was not marked by a record.
Operators must indeed gauge the next actions of the major central banks in their fight against inflation. And some officials of the US Federal Reserve show their disagreement on the future path of rates.
“A major concern”
The President of the Federal Reserve of Saint-Louis, James Bullard, known for his “restrictive” vision of monetary policy, relativized with Reuters market recession fears and argued for more rate hikes, beyond the 25 basis points (0.25%) expected at the next central bank meeting in May. However, investors are only counting on a single increase in the Fed’s key rates.
The president of the Atlanta Fed, Raphael Bostic, gave him a speech in reverse of that of James Bullard, judging that only one additional rate hike should be enough, before “a break”.
In Europe, the European Central Bank is far from having completed its monetary tightening cycle. The chief economist of the European Central Bank, Philip Lane, campaigned on Tuesday evening on Bloomberg TV for a new interest rate hike in May without giving further details on its magnitude. In the euro zone, inflation was confirmed at 6.9% over one year in March.
“Inflation remains a top concern for central banks and recent data underscores how far we still have to go, which policymakers hope will change very soon,” reports Craig Erlam at Oanda.
A pace of publications set to intensify
The pace of publication of corporate results will clearly accelerate in France from this evening, with L’Oréal, FDJ and, tomorrow, EssilorLuxottica, Renault and Edenred.
In terms of values, OVHcloud lost 9% after publishing lower-than-expected profitability for its first half and lowering all of its objectives for the current financial year.
Worldline limited its growth to 0.9% after having gained nearly 8% at the opening, driven by the announcement of negotiations with the bank Crédit Agricole to create a joint venture specialized in the provision of payment services to merchants In France.
My energy broker, which targets companies, wants to go public on the Euronext Growth compartment, dedicated to small and medium-sized companies.
On other markets, the euro fell 0.1% against the dollar to 1.0957 dollar. Oil prices are trending down sharply. The North Sea Brent contract for June delivery fell 1.5% to $83.52 a barrel, while New York-listed WTI for May delivery fell 1.7% to $79.56 a barrel.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2023 BFM Bourse