PARIS (Agefi-Dow Jones)–The CAC 40 should open slightly lower on Thursday, as the market dissects the minutes of the last Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy meeting. The session’s trading volumes should also be penalized by the absence of certain operators on this Ascension holiday.
Around 8:20 a.m., the futures contract on the Parisian index yielded around ten points, or 0.2%.
The minutes of the Fed’s monetary policy meeting of May 3 and 4 showed that its members had spoken in favor of a 50 basis point hike in key rates at the next two meetings, in order to curb inflation at its highest for 40 years. Those officials stressed, however, that they would then have to take into account “the heightened uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook” in determining the appropriate monetary policy, according to the minutes.
While this message may have reassured investors, fears about the global economy remain strong. On Thursday, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang painted a gloomy picture of the Chinese economy, weakened by health restrictions. The leader acknowledged that the economic difficulties facing China were greater than at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to remarks reported by the official news agency Chine Nouvelle.
In business news, the Brazilian competition authority has conditionally authorized the takeover of local distributor Grupo BIG by Carrefour, the Brazilian subsidiary of the tricolor group announced on Wednesday evening.
The metal recycling specialist Derichebourg published on Wednesday evening significantly improved results for the first half of its 2021-2022 financial year, which benefited in particular from the integration of the Ecore company acquired last year. Derichebourg said he was “very confident in the future of the recycling business, and its industrial and financial prospects”.
-Julien Marion, Agefi-Dow Jones; +33 (0)1 41 27 47 94; [email protected] ed: LBO
Agefi-Dow Jones The financial newswire
Dow Jones Newswires
May 26, 2022 02:32 ET (06:32 GMT)