(BFM Bourse) – After a very volatile session, the Paris Stock Exchange finally closed sharply higher. Investors will scrutinize this Wednesday evening in the minutes (the “minutes”) of the last meeting of the Federal Reserve of the United States the indications likely to guide the monetary policy to come…
Long uncertain, the Paris Stock Exchange managed to close in the green on Wednesday, practically at its best level of the day, before two sessions where the news from the listed tricolor flagships could mark time due to the Ascension. After starting up, the CAC 40 weakened until spending some time in negative territory at the start of the afternoon. But the tricolor index recovered in the afternoon to conclude with an increase of 0.73%, narrowly failing to reach 6300 points, ending at 6,298.64 points. A rebound, however, insufficient to make up for the delay on Tuesday evening (-1.7%).
The U.S. central bank will be the focus of attention as investors debate whether it intends to continue to deliver rate hikes in 0.5 point increments to tame inflation, or could it slow the pace of tightening, and depending on which macroeconomic signals. The publication of the minutes of the meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee on May 3 and 4, around 8:00 p.m. Paris time, will again fuel the debates while the institution will also begin in a few days a new stage of reduction of its balance sheet.
By the time the “minutes” are published, durable goods orders for the past month in the United States were also on the agenda for the day. They emerged emerged up 0.4% compared to the previous month, against an increase of 0.6% expected by the consensus. The statistic comes after a slew of already mediocre indicators on Tuesday (decline in PMIs on both sides of the Atlantic, collapse of the Richmond Fed manufacturing index, fall in sales of new homes, etc.).
A “sustainable and non-transitory” inflation
“The unpleasant reality is that central banks are going to be forced to keep tightening policy, even if growth slows around the world, because inflation has proven to be long-lasting and not transitory. It’s the least worst of all. choices central banks have to make in a stagflationary environment,” said Jeffrey Halley, analyst at Oanda.
As for Parisian stocks, Compagnie des Alpes (+14.50%) stood out on the Paris Stock Exchange. Despite the economic uncertainties of the moment, the leisure group presented a very good first half which encourages it to bring forward by one year its objective of exceeding its results before the pandemic, especially as the summer season is looking good. for the moment.
Bonduelle (+5.1%) benefited from the proposed sale to Quebec institutions of 65% of the capital of its subsidiary Bonduelle Americas Long Life (BALL, dedicated to the processing and marketing of canned and frozen vegetables , in the United States and Canada) based on an enterprise value of $850 million. A transfer project is also on the agenda at Veolia (+2.1%), which has reached an agreement to sell its industrial water treatment services in France to Séché. This is the last step in the antitrust remedies proposed in order to have the Veolia-Suez merger accepted.
Climate resolution adopted at TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies is in acquisition mode, with the signing of an agreement to buy 50% of Clearway Energy Group, the fifth American player in renewable energies, of which Global Infrastructure Partners will retain 50%. The French energy company gained 2.8% after the vote on a resolution in favor of the climate at its general meeting.
In decline, Sodexo dropped nearly 5% after finally giving up on opening the capital of its ‘benefits and rewards’ branch.
In terms of energy, oil prices stabilized around 110 dollars (110.41 dollars for Brent, 109.48 dollars for WTI), while operators fear an early bottleneck in American infrastructure ahead of the driving season in the States United States, insofar as distributors and importers will all try to avoid congestion due to logistical difficulties, particularly in the ports on the east coast where warehouses are already overflowing.
On the foreign exchange market, the runaway for the euro which carried the single currency to the highest of a month after the comments of the boss of the ECB fell significantly. The euro was trading against 1.0657 dollars, down 0.7% since the day before.
Sabrina Sadgui
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