(CercleFinance.com) – After having lost 0.24% yesterday, the Paris Stock Exchange continued its slight consolidation today and dropped 0.34%, to 7254 points.
The Parisian index is notably penalized by the increase in the price of oil, close to its highest for a year, with +2% for Brent, towards $90, and while Saudi Arabia announces to extend the reduction of its quotas (-1 million barrels/day) until the end of 2023.
Moreover, the publication of the latest PMI figures was not encouraging: in France, the HCOB PMI composite index of global activity reported a third consecutive monthly decline in the private sector, from 46.6 in July to 46 in August.
The index points to the steepest rate of contraction since November 2020 as activity fell at a healthy pace in both manufacturing and services, the latter seeing its index settle at its lowest since February 2021 .
At the level of the French private sector, the overall volume of ‘new business’ recorded its largest monthly decline for 33 months, and the survey showed only a weak increase in employment in August.
In the euro zone, the HCOB composite PMI index of overall activity fell from 48.6 in July to 46.7 in August, the largest contraction in the private sector in the euro zone since November 2020, and, apart from peaks reached during the Covid-19 pandemic, since March 2013.
This publication is also marked by an unexpected acceleration in the inflation of prices paid by private companies in the euro zone, a reversal of the trend which, according to the investigators, ‘mainly reflects the upward trajectory of wages’.
In the United Kingdom, the services PMI index fell to 49.5 last month, against 51.5 in July, thus returning to a low since the beginning of the year, a decline however less pronounced than that announced at first reading, at 48.7.
The other statistics expected by the end of the week, particularly those from German industry, should also highlight the loss of momentum on the Old Continent at the start of the third quarter.
‘This should not prevent the indices from continuing to rise, because despite China’s abortive rebound, the recession in certain countries in the zone, including Germany, or the still very high inflation, the indices are all still close to their all-time highs’, however, assures Vincent Boy, market analyst at IG France.
On the bond front, the deterioration that began 10 days ago (strong acceleration on Friday) continues with +2.5Pts on OATs (3.13%), +3Pts on Bunds (2.605%), and +4Pts on Italian BTPs (at 4.335%).
But the US rates markets are doing much worse, with the ‘catch-up’ resulting from the closure of Wall Street on Monday: the T-Bonds suddenly add +8.5Pts to 4.26%… but this may be linked to the oil boom.
The Dollar took the opportunity to firm up (+0.8% to $1.0710/E) and reach a 3-month high (level tested on June 7 then June 8 in the morning).
In the news of French companies, Air France-KLM and Airbus announce that they have entered into exclusive negotiations with a view to establishing a joint venture for the worldwide supply of maintenance services for Airbus A350 equipment.
Eutelsat Communications announces a new strategic partnership with the management company Karista, a partnership through which the satellite operator becomes a new subscriber in its fund dedicated to spacetech.
Renault Group announces the deployment, for the second year, of its Renaulution Shareplan employee shareholding operation, as part of its objective to increase the share of capital held by employees from 4.7% at the end of the 2022 to 10% by 2030.
Thales today announces a partnership in cybersecurity with Kyndryl, presented as the world’s leading provider of IT infrastructure services.
Finally, Stellantis announced on Tuesday that the synthetic fuels resulting from its collaboration with the Saudi oil company Aramco would be compatible with its European vehicles.
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