Paris regains some confidence

The start of the week did not bode well for a decline limited to 0.72% for the Cac 40, over the past five sessions. But the rise of the last three days almost compensated for the 2% plunge on Monday, when the demons of the moment came back in force to worry the markets: on the one hand, the prospect of very rapid monetary tightening in the United States in the concern to calm inflation, following the very “hawkish” remarks made on Thursday 21 April by Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve; on the other hand, China seemed to be preparing to extend to Beijing the very harsh confinement imposed on Shanghai as part of its zero Covid policy, which revived fears for global growth and the consequences of a slowdown for the companies, already faced with soaring costs.

The nervousness was also maintained, at the beginning of the week, by the imminence of the quarterly results of the American tech giants.

Like Netflix, the previous week, disappointments were feared for these stocks, which the confinements and the lowest interest rates largely favored. The Nasdaq, on Wall Street, was characterized by high volatility (-4% Monday, +3.1% Thursday) and a drop close to 12% in April, with disappointments for the publications of Alphabet (Google) and Amazon.

In Paris, on the other hand, it was the quarterly figures of the Cac 40 groups (there were 16 to publish!), the good surprises they reserved and the maintenance (sometimes the increase) of the annual objectives which enabled the French market to regain some confidence over the week, to the point of disconnecting from Wall Street and obscuring unreassuring economic statistics in Europe and the United States, including the decline in US GDP in the first quarter. Be careful not to get carried away, however.

Next week is high risk, less for the eight publications still to come from the Cac 40 than for the Fed’s monetary policy meeting.