(BFM Bourse) – The CAC 40 ended on a decline of 0.01% after having come close to a historic high during the session.
It took very little, but the CAC 40 ended up in the red. The Parisian index closed down 0.01% at 7,344.96 points on Tuesday, ending a series of six consecutive increases. This after having evolved a good part of the session in contact with 7,400 points, without however exceeding its highest in session of 7,401.15 points on March 6th.
The trend came to a halt with the poor start of the session on Wall Street. Shortly before the European close, the S&P 500 yielded 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.5%.
The market dissected several indicators during the day, trying to assess their impact on the monetary tightening cycles of the major central banks.
Australia’s central bank says ‘stop’
As such, the Royal Bank of Australia, the Australian central bank has paused its rate hikes. The Australian institution cited “various concerns, including a substantial slowdown in household spending, the lag from recent rate hikes and tensions in US and European banks,” notes Craig Erlam of Oanda.
“It is not the only central bank to find itself in this situation. In fact, most other central banks have gotten there or are very close to it, and recent tensions in the banking sector have highlighted the risks of this. ‘significant further tightening of monetary policy,’ he continues.
On the statistical front, job openings in the United States for the month of February, published on Tuesday, fell sharply, from 10.6 million in the previous month to 9.9 million. “The sharp drop in job openings in February shows that labor demand was cooling even before the recent banking turmoil and provides further reason to believe that the Fed’s monetary policy tightening cycle [Réserve fédérale, NDLR] is almost finished”, judge Capital Economics.
Michelin stands out
In the euro zone, producer prices for the month of February fell more sharply than expected by economists, with a monthly decline of 0.5%. Over one year, these prices remain up by 13.2% against 15.1% in January.
On the value side, L’Oréal appreciated by 1.2% after signing an agreement with Natura & Co for the acquisition of Aesop, an Australian luxury cosmetics brand, with an enterprise value of 2.525 billions of dollars.
Michelin took 1.6% benefiting from a research rating from UBS. The Swiss bank raised its price target from one euro to 36 euros on the bibendum group, the only one it recommends for purchase in the universe of tire manufacturers, due to an excessively depreciated valuation, according to her.
Haffner Energy gained 10.5%, the green hydrogen specialist announced the signing of two major contracts with the start-up Carbonloop in the production of renewable hydrogen as well as its prospects. On the other markets, oil is trending down slightly. North Sea Brent crude for June delivery fell 0.16% to $84.85 a barrel while May Brent on New York-listed WTI was stable at $80.42 a barrel. The day before, the two major references of black gold had jumped by almost 7%.
On foreign exchange, the euro gained 0.5% against the dollar at 1.0962 dollars.
Julien Marion – ©2023 BFM Bourse