(BFM Bourse) – Up more than 1.3% in the morning in the wake of a technical rebound in Asian markets, the flagship CAC 40 index ended Tuesday down 0.54%, its third decline in in a row, as slowing growth coupled with high inflation continues to depress investors.
And wreckage… Encouraged by the good performance of the American financial center on Monday evening and the rebound of the Chinese market in the morning (the day after a 5% drop in the Shanghai Composite triggered by the new confinements) the Paris Stock Exchange sketched a rebound on Thursday, gaining as much as 1.3% by early afternoon. But the CAC 40 quickly erased its gains, falling back into the red after the opening of Wall Street, and ending at the lowest of the day at 6,414.57 points, a decline of 0.54%.
On the rebound the day before – particularly on the Nasdaq side in the wake of the announcement of an agreement for the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk – Wall Street was in sharp decline before a salvo of results from major groups in the tech or more traditional, i.e. nearly 2% decline for the S&P 500 and more than 3% for the Nasdaq Composite. Setting the tone for the session, even though the conglomerate has largely lost its market size, General Electric fell more than 10% after warning that supply chain disruptions (which are therefore far from being resolved, on the contrary) will not would not fail to penalize its activity this year. The resurgence of Covid-19 and strict, if not severe, confinements in China obviously do not bode well for this. After the stock market, Microsoft and Alphabet are called upon to publish their quarterly performance, as well as General Motors, Visa and Mondelez.
Corporate publications follow their course in Paris as well. Pending the publication of Bic, the title was sought after (+2%), while the rise of M6 was limited to +0.6% at the close while the audiovisual group unveiled growth of 8 % of its quarterly turnover. Current operating income came to 67.2 million euros, up +4.5%.
Orange posted 1% gains after reporting a 0.7% increase in sales to 10.6 billion euros in the first quarter. The group’s activity in Africa and the Middle East made it possible to offset the erosion of its sales in Spain and France over the period.
Conversely, Faurecia capitulated at the end of the day, ending on more than 10% drop. The automotive supplier has announced the postponement of its capital increase and the suspension of its dividend, due to adverse market conditions.
Excluding publications, Carrefour (+1.2%) did well, benefiting from a rise (from underperformance to neutral) in Bernstein’s opinion.
Orpea lost more than 8% after the postponement of the publication of its annual accounts, currently being audited, to May 13.
The rebound in black gold prompted operators to take refuge in energy-related stocks, in particular oil services companies CGG (+3.7%) or Vallourec (+3.1%), producers Waga Energy (+ 3.3%) and La Française de l’Energie (+3.7%) or even the “junior” oil company Maurel & Prom (+2.75%). At the end of the session, the futures contract on a barrel of Brent appreciated by 2.23% at 104.44 dollars (+2.7% for the WTI at 101.23 dollars), after in particular the reinstatement by the Biden administration of blocking opportunities for exploration and production of onshore fields in Alaska, on the equivalent of half the area of the National Petroleum Reserve.
The course of the euro continued to slide, operators preferring to keep the dollar in the face of fears about global growth, especially since monetary tightening is more advanced in the United States. At the end of the session, the single currency lost 0.48% to 1.0663 dollars, still on a floor since March 2020.
Guillaume Bayre – ©2022 BFM Bourse