(Boursier.com) — THE TREND
The CAC40 is more hesitant. After five consecutive sessions of growth, the Parisian index seems to be struggling to go higher, for lack of catalysts. After 30 minutes of trading, the CAC posted a timid gain of 0.12% to 6,600 points, particularly affected by the sharp decline in Sanofi. If the news is still very sparse in France on August 17, and more generally in Europe, operators will closely follow two very important indicators in the United States, namely July retail sales and “minutes”. from the Fed’s last FOMC meeting, which could provide new indications on the size of the rate hike to be expected in September. The markets now estimate the probability of an increase limited to 50 basis points at 57.5%, against 42.5% for an increase of three quarters of a point, according to the FedWatch barometer.
On the Old Continent, the main information of the day is expected at 11 a.m. with the publication of the first estimate of euro zone GDP for the second quarter.
On the foreign exchange market, the dollar gained 0.15% against a basket of currencies and against the euro ($1.0156). Bitcoin, for its part, rose 1.3% over 24 hours to $24,310 on Coindesk.
A barrel of WTI crude for September delivery rose 0.8% to $87.2 in electronic trading on the Nymex after hitting six-month lows on Tuesday. The ounce of gold is stable at $1,774.
ECO AND CURRENCIES
In Europe, the first estimate of eurozone GDP for the second quarter will be released at 11 a.m. In the United Kingdom, according to data released this morning by the National Statistics Office, annual inflation stood at 10.1% in July after 9.4% the previous month, and against a consensus of 9.8 %. Inflation had not reached such a high level for 40 years across the Channel.
In the U.S., July retail sales (2:30 p.m.), business inventories and sales (4:00 p.m.), the Department of Energy’s weekly report on domestic oil inventories (4:30 p.m.) and the FOMC ‘Minutes’ ( 8:00 p.m.) are on the program.
VALUES TO FOLLOW
* Air France-KLM (+1% to 1.6 euros). Citi has upgraded the file from 1.50 to 1.85 euros while remaining in the ‘purchase’.
* Deezer (+0.5% to 4.5 euros) launches its music streaming service in Germany. RTL Deutschland announced last night the launch of the music streaming app RTL+ Musik. Through its partnership with Deezer, paying subscribers of RTL+ in Germany will now have access to 90 million tracks, over 5,000 editorialised playlists and a user-friendly interface with the main features of a music streaming experience. The launch of the music streaming service is at the heart of RTL+’s expansion into a cross-media entertainment offering.
* Abivax (-5.5% to 8.8 euros) will change president. Dr Philippe Pouletty, founder of Abivax and Chairman of the Board of Directors since its creation in 2013, informed the Board of his desire to henceforth devote his activity to other projects, including listed companies, and to no longer wish assume his responsibilities as Chairman. Consequently, Dr. Philippe Pouletty has informed the Board of Directors of his decision to resign as Chairman, effective immediately. However, after many years of leading the Board of Directors, Dr Pouletty will continue to support the development of the Company as a member of the Board of Directors. Until the appointment of a new independent permanent Chairman, Ms. Corinna zur Bonsen-Thomas, an independent member of the Board of Directors of Abivax, will assume the role of interim Chairman.
* Sanofi still slumps (-2.5% to 84.5 euros) after announcing the end of its clinical development program for amcenestrant, an oral treatment for certain breast cancers. An independent data monitoring committee found that, compared to the control group, amcenestrant in combination with palbociclib did not reach the pre-specified threshold for continued treatment and therefore recommended stopping the trial . The company will continue to evaluate data from the trial and plans to communicate its results to the scientific community soon. All other studies of amcenestrant, particularly in the treatment of early-stage breast cancer (AMEERA-6), will be stopped, Sanofi said.
The laboratory had already been heavily heckled on the stock market last week, weighed down by several headwinds, and in particular fears of legal proceedings linked to Zantac in the United States. This heartburn treatment was taken off the market from 2019 after a potential risk from a potentially carcinogenic impurity emerged. Zantac, originally launched by GSK, has been marketed by several companies since its exclusive patent expired in the late 1990s, including Sanofi, Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim. More than 2,000 complaints involving Zantac have been filed in the United States according to analysts and the first trial is due to open at the end of the month. In a statement released last week, Sanofi said it “acted responsibly at all times…The plaintiffs’ claims in this litigation are not scientifically substantiated. There is no reliable evidence that Zantac causes the one of the alleged illnesses under real-world conditions, and Sanofi remains fully confident in its legal defenses. Given the strength of our case and the uncertainty of future proceedings, no litigation provision has been established.”
Technip Energies (-0.7% to 12.1 euros). In consortium with Subsea 7 and Samkang M&T, the group was selected by Corio Generation and TotalEnergies for the completion of a detailed front-end engineering study (FEED) for the Ulsan Gray Whale 3 offshore wind farm project, located off the east coast of South Korea. This FEED contract covers the engineering of the float, the mooring and the wiring in collaboration with a turbine manufacturer. The Gray Whale 3 project, to develop a 504 MW floating offshore wind farm located approximately 60 to 70 kilometers from the port of Onsan in Ulsan, is one of three offshore wind projects that Corio Generation and TotalEnergies are developing off the coast of the Ulsan coast for a total installed capacity of 1.5 gigawatts.
* ADP Group (stable at 143.8 euros) revealed an increase in traffic of 11.9 million passengers in July compared to July 2021, with 29.7 million passengers welcomed across the entire network of managed airports. It represents 83.7% of the level of group traffic for the month of July 2019. Since the beginning of the year, Groupe ADP traffic is up +116.8% compared to 2021, at 147.9 million passengers, i.e. 74% of the level of group traffic over the same period in 2019.