Up 1.3% at the best of the session the day after its biggest drop in nearly a month, the Paris Stock Exchange is hovering just above equilibrium. Wall Street evolves for its part on an irregular note in the first half hour. The cautiousness of the market is reflected in the rise of defensive stocks, and in particular that of 1% of the Stoxx 600 of healthcare, which set a new record. After the Fed’s minutes on Wednesday evening, investors took note of the minutes of the last ECB meeting. It shows that the Board of Governors was divided last month between supporters of monetary tightening and supporters of a wait-and-see position.
Some of the board members were leaning towards setting a specific date for the end of the asset purchases, which would have paved the way for a possible rate hike in the third quarter. The report notes that ” the three conditions set by the indications on the future development of monetary policy before an upward adjustment of the main ECB interest rates were already met or were close to being met “. The yield on the 10-year German Bund, which serves as a benchmark in the euro zone, rose 5 basis points to 0.7040%.
Around 4 p.m., the Bedroom 40 takes 0.24% to 6,514.30 points in a limited business volume of barely 2 billion euros. In New York, the Dow Jones yields 0.39% and the Nasdaq Composite grapples 0.25%
The Fed ready to reduce its balance sheet
The March 15-16 FOMC minutes, released Wednesday evening, indicate that Federal Reserve officials are determined to rein in inflation, at the risk of causing an economic slowdown or even a recession. They believe that 50 basis point hikes in the fed funds rate might be appropriate for this purpose. Above all, the Fed plans to reduce the size of its balance sheet by $95 billion a month. Although this pace is double that decided between 2017 and 2019, it is nevertheless in line with, or even lower than, economists’ expectations in view of the recent comments, which are at least “hawkish” from several members of the FOMC.
On the geopolitical front, European diplomats are expected to approve a Russian coal embargo on Thursday that would come into force in mid-August, a month later than originally planned, Reuters reports citing an EU source. . This postponement would be due to German pressure to delay the implementation of the measure, adds the press agency. An agreement on a new set of sanctions against Russia could be reached this Thursday or Friday, said Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.
Eurofins Scientific leads the CAC 40
Sanofi takes 1.18%. The pharmaceutical group announced that the European Commission has approved Dupixent (dupilumab) for the treatment of children aged six to eleven years with severe asthma with type 2 inflammatory signature. Eurofins Scientific advance of 4.1%.
Euronext rises 1.8%. Credit Suisse has started monitoring the “outperforming” trading platform with a price target of 96 euros.
Crossroads takes another 2.1%. According to a survey carried out by Bloomberg among 20 traders, the distribution giant is at the top of the European companies likely to be the subject of a takeover offer, ahead of Eutelsat (+1.4%).
The meeting was also marked by renewed activity linked to mergers and acquisitions. Atlanta jumped 7% in Milan while the funds Global Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield approached the operator of motorways, which could be the subject of competing offers. In Paris, V.here increased by 3.2%. Its motorway concessions subsidiary Vinci Highways now owns 100% of the American company TollPlus, a specialist in motorway toll management systems and mobility solutions.