(CercleFinance.com) – The Paris Stock Exchange shows a decline of 0.88%, to 7914 points, penalized by Stellantis (-4.3%), STMicro (-3.7%) and TotalEnergies (-2.5 %).
The decline in the index is nevertheless slowed down by Teleperformance which takes almost 14%, ahead of Engie (+2.5%).
Caution therefore dominates the day after the May 1 public holiday, marked by Jerome Powell’s speech which left doubts surrounding the timetable for the next rate cuts (a consensus seems to be emerging for the November meeting, or that of mid-December).
Wall Street tried to reassure itself with a ‘little sentence’ from Jerome Powell affirming that the Fed’s next move will ‘probably not’ be a rate hike… but investors must understand that the outlook has changed significantly in 4 months with an anticipation of 7 reductions revised to a single easing (150 Points difference compared to the initial scenario).
Indeed, the Fed notes that growth remains ‘solid’, that job creation and consumption remain robust, while inflation has stopped falling for several months now.
‘The problem linked to inflation may not be easy to resolve if the economy continues to do well,’ recognize Commerzbank analysts.
For the German bank, no reduction in interest rates is therefore expected before December.
The uncertainty surrounding the monetary easing agenda ‘sticks’ American bond yields to the levels of the day before, that is to say before the 8 p.m. press release, with a ’10 year’ generally unchanged at 4.625% (-1Pt). In Europe, OATs and Bunds symbolically eased by -2.5Pt to 3.05% and 2.556% respectively.
On the statistics front, orders to American industry increased by another 1.6% in March 2024, according to the Department of Commerce (after an increase of 1.2% in February).
For their part, deliveries by American industry increased by 0.3% in March compared to the previous month. Finally, as inventories remained virtually stable, the inventory-to-delivery ratio remained unchanged at 1.47 month over month.
Non-agricultural productivity increased by 0.3% at an annualized rate in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Labor Department’s first estimate, due to a 1.3% increase in total production for an increased number of hours worked from 1%.
Taking into account this slight increase in productivity, but also a 5% increase in hourly wages, non-agricultural unit labor costs in the United States increased by 4.7% for the first three months of this year. .. this is what upsets the markets.
The US trade deficit remained almost stable at $69.4 billion in March, compared to the previous month’s $69.5 billion (which was revised from an initial estimate of $68.9 billion). , according to the Department of Commerce.
This 0.1% decline in the deficit from one month to the next results from a 1.6% decrease in imports of goods and services by the United States, to $327 billion, and a contraction 2% of their exports, to 257.6 billion.
Weekly unemployment claims are stagnating once again at 208,000 (and it’s been 2 months since ‘it hasn’t moved’).
On the European statistics front, the HCOB PMI index for the Eurozone manufacturing industry stood below the 50 mark of no change which separates contraction from growth for a 22nd consecutive month, thus signaling a new deterioration of the economy in April.
Having fallen from 46.1 in March to 45.7, it also highlights a slight acceleration in the contraction of the euro zone manufacturing sector compared to the previous month, with strong divergences in trends at the level. national.
In France, the manufacturing PMI index fell from 46.2 in March to 45.3 in April, thus signaling a fifteenth consecutive deterioration in the sector’s economic situation, the contraction having also shown its fastest pace sustained since January.
The euro gained 0.5% against the greenback, to $1.07/euro.
Finally, in the news of French companies, Worldline displays for the first quarter of 2024 a turnover of just under 1.1 billion euros, organic growth of 2.5%, an increase of 3, 9% in merchant services having largely offset a decline of 1.4% in financial services.
Technip Energies publishes for the first three months of 2024 (in adjusted data) an EPS up 11% to 0.50 euros, but a recurring EBIT margin down 0.3 points to 7.3% for a turnover up 8% to 1.52 billion euros.
ArcelorMittal posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) over the first three months of the year – the indicator most followed by investors – of 1.96 billion dollars, up 34% compared to the previous quarter.
Finally, Lacroix announces that it has finalized the sale of its signaling segment to the industrial investment company AIAC, having obtained approval from the competent authorities for this transaction announced in December 2023.
Copyright © 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends using the buttons below.
