(Boursier.com) — The CAC 40 confirms its timid rise this evening, up 0.4% to 5,954 pts at the end of a fairly calm session given the absence of American operators. Enough to get closer to 6,000 points in transaction volumes, however limited, while Wall Street remains closed today due to the national holiday in the United States. The trend in Paris was notably supported by oil stocks and in particular TotalEnergies, which dominated the charts. A lower-than-expected European producer price index also contributed to the positive mood.
Industrial producer prices rose 0.7% in the euro zone in May (+0.9% consensus) after rising 1.2% the previous month, Eurostat data released on Monday showed. Year on year, prices posted a gain of 36.3% against 36.6% expected by economists. Prices in the whole of industry, excluding the energy sector, rose by 1.3% over one month.
As for Germany, this morning unveiled its first monthly trade deficit since 1991! Thus, the German trade balance for the month of May 2022 showed a deficit of one billion euros, against a surplus of 3.1 billion euros a month before. German exports for May fell 0.5% compared to the previous month, a bigger decline than expected since the FactSet consensus was -0.25%.
Note also that the Sentix index of investor confidence announced this morning was negative at -26.4 for the month of July, against -20 consensus.
The American rating observes a break this Monday for “Independence Day”, Independence Day, celebrated for the anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence of 1776. Wall Street will therefore be closed and no notable statistics is expected across the Atlantic. Tomorrow Tuesday, operators will follow industrial orders for the month of May (consensus +0.5% compared to the previous month) and monthly car sales. On Wednesday, investors will be watching for the final composite PMI, as well as the Services ISM, JOLTS job openings report and Fed Minutes.
The Federal Reserve will therefore publish on Wednesday the minutes of its last monetary policy meeting during which a three-quarter point increase in its main interest rate was approved, its largest increase since 1994. In Europe, the president of the Bank of Estonia, whose country faces the highest inflation in the euro zone, believes that the European Central Bank should stick to its current tightening plan, i.e. a rate hike of 25 basis points on July 21. Contrary to his colleagues from the other Baltic countries who are calling for a rate hike of half a basis point at the end of the month, the Estonian governor asserts that the ECB should wait until September before making such a move.
RISING VALUES
* Leading the CAC 40, TotalEnergies gained 4.5% to 52.43 euros, while Brent from the North Sea rose by nearly 2% towards $114.
* Technip Energies (+4.8% to 12.35 euros) won a major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Hafslund Oslo Celsio, the largest district heating supplier in Norway, for a project carbon capture and storage (CCS) associated with the waste-to-energy plant in Oslo, Norway.
* Crossroads gained 1.2% to 17.15 euros. Oddo BHF reiterated its ‘outperform’ rating on Crossroads in an inflationary context which worries more than one player in the compartment.
* LVMH advance of 0.9% to 585.3 euros. Stifel provided an update on the file ahead of the half-yearly publication of the world’s number one luxury goods company. The analyst expects a turnover of 35.4 billion euros (+12% organic growth in the second quarter) and a current operating profit of 9.55 billion euros. If it lowers its target price from 800 to 750 euros, the broker continues to favor LVMH within the sector.
* Orpea (+3.6% to 23.51 euros) announced that a profound renewal of its Board of Directors will be proposed at the next General Assembly. Thus, it will be proposed to this General Meeting to appoint, for a term of 4 years, 5 new directors, 4 of whom are independent.
* Sodexo rose 4% to 72.54 euros. Deutsche Bank adjusted its price target from 93 to 94 euros (‘buy’).
FALLING VALUES
* Atos plunged 10.6% to 11.32 euros in an expanded volume. According to Le Monde on Monday, shareholders of the group wrote to the board of directors to request the departure of Bertrand Meunier, current president. Atos, which has just announced a plan to split its activities before potential disposals, as well as the departure of its managing director Rodolphe Belmer, has since continued to drop on the stock market. The title has lost more than two thirds of its value since the beginning of the year. Bertrand Meunier, president of Atos since 2019, then successor to Thierry Breton, quoted by Le Monde, simply indicated that the discussions with the shareholders were confidential. He also mentioned a permanent dialogue with the shareholders. In addition, Exane BNP Paribas has just downgraded the Atos value from ‘neutral’ to ‘underperformance’ on Monday, targeting 9 euros.
* Elior (-4.3% to 2.098 euros) announced that Bernard Gault, who had been its acting CEO since the surprise resignation in early March of Philippe Guillemot, becomes its CEO.
* Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield fell 3.2% to 47.48 euros. The resurgence of Covid cases in France is not good news for the summer attendance of shopping centers.