The month of September starts badly for the Paris Stock Exchange, which aligns this Thursday a sixth session of decline in a row and sees its flagship index, the Cac 40, approaching with great strides the threshold of 6,000 points, recrossed during the session of July 15, before a rally in the second half of the month which had enabled the Cac 40 to climb by nearly 9% over the month.
In the middle of the day, the flagship index lost 1.51%, to 6,032.48 points, weighed down by a series of bad news in terms of activity, hardly surprising for all that in the almost established scenario of a forthcoming entry. in recession, accelerated by the monetary offensive of the central banks, pressed by soaring inflation.
In China first, manufacturing activity entered a contraction phase in August, with the final private PMI-Caixin index coming out below the 50-point threshold for the first time in three months. It falls to 49.5 points, against 50.4 in July. In question, a weakening of demand, against a backdrop of rationing of electricity and the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic. Already, two days ago, official figures from the Chinese government showed that demand was failing with a new orders sub-index slipping into the red after two months of growth.
The euro zone is also disappointing
What to worry about. Especially since in China, the health crisis is far from over. Nearly 4 million residents of the cities of Chengde and Xinle in Hebei, near Beijing, were locked down yesterday as authorities wanted to avoid a runaway in Covid cases ahead of the big meeting of the Communist Party of China in autumn. North of the city, more than 13 million, in Tianjin, had to undergo a PCR test after the detection of 80 positive cases in the space of two days.
Disappointment, also in the euro zone, where the final manufacturing index for August was announced at 49.6 points, down another 0.1 point compared to July. The trend is frankly bad in Germany, where the industrial component fell from 49.8 to 49.1 points in the space of a month. Only France is a pleasant surprise, with a PMI index which is above 50 points, therefore in the expansion zone, at 50.6 points, against 49 in July.
” Eurozone manufacturers, still facing severe difficulties, again reported a sharp decline in production volumes in August. Manufacturing activity thus fell for a third consecutive month, a trend foreshadowing a fall in GDP in the third quarterexplained Chris Williamson, chief economist at S&P Global. With the survey’s forward-looking indicators also pointing to a potentially sharp acceleration in the contraction over the coming months, economic downside risks have increased in the region.. ยป
Euroapi, the good reaction of the day
On the other side of the Atlantic, the ISM manufacturing index, which is more considered the benchmark, remains, for the time being, in expansion territory. It is expected at 52 for the past month, but it remains on a downward trend for eighteen months. Three other US indicators will punctuate the afternoon: new jobless claims for the week ended August 27, the second estimate of second-quarter productivity and construction spending in July.
As for values, the good reaction of the day came from Euroapi, from Sanofi, also confirms annual forecasts after a 10% increase in sales at the end of June. Consolidated operating income before depreciation and amortization and excluding restructuring costs increased by more than 20%. The producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients rose 3% on the stock market.