The Paris Stock Exchange is progressing in this first session of the second quarter, the first three months of the year having resulted in the most marked decline in the Cac 40 since the start of the health crisis in March 2020. Investors take note the slowdown in manufacturing activity and a record inflation rate of 7.5% over one year in March in the euro zone. Well above the ECB’s target, the surge in prices may force the central bank to raise interest rates faster than expected. BNP Paribas, Agricultural credit and Societe Generale earn between 0.5% and 1.5%.
On the geopolitical front, negotiations between Moscow and kyiv are due to resume this Friday, according to Ukrainian officials. Russian troops have begun to withdraw from the vicinity of the capital and those of Chernihiv, said the governors of these two regions. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced this week that it would reduce its operations around the two cities to focus on Donbass, in the east of the country.
Mid-session, the Bedroom 40 takes 0.56% to 6,697.41 points in a business volume of 900 million euros. The contracts future on American indices gained between 0.5% and 0.6%.
Brent rises again
Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree stipulating that his European customers will now have to pay for their gas purchases in rubles from 1er April. However, it indicated that it would continue its deliveries at the price and in the volumes provided for in the current contracts, while reserving the possibility of interrupting them in the event of non-compliance with the new conditions. In Amsterdam, the price per megawatt hour of natural gas fell 2.7% to 122.49 euros.
On the oil front, the barrel of Brent from the North Sea returned to around 105 dollars. Main supporter of the Cac 40, TotalEnergies takes back 1%.
Can US employment be a game-changer?
Last month’s US employment report also remains an important meeting, without however constituting a real issue. Except perhaps for the evolution of the average hourly wage, the only element likely to support or invalidate the prospect of a 50 basis point hike in the US Federal Reserve’s rates in May.
The consensus formed by Bloomberg expects 490,000 job creations after 678,000 in February, a decline of 0.1 point in the unemployment rate to 3.7%, an increase of 0.4% in hourly wages over one month and 5.5% over one year, against 5.1% the previous month.
On the bond front, the yield curve remains under surveillance after a new incursion of the yield of the American bond at 2 years above that of the 10 years. Such a reversal is generally seen as a signal that a recession could occur within a one- or two-year horizon.
Sodexo cautious for the current semester
Sodexo picks up 9%. The collective catering and prepaid services group did slightly better than expected in the first half, but it is much less confident for the rest of the year. The pandemic, work and the war in Ukraine are among the reasons given for this caution.
Renault garners 3.1%. Sales of Renault Korea Motor, the South Korean subsidiary of the French group, rose 21% in March, boosted by solid exports. Renault-Samsung’s worldwide sales rose by 21.4%. In France, new car registrations fell by 19.5% last month. Those of the diamond mark contracted by 15.1%,
Sanofi gain 1%. The pharmaceutical group has announced that its active pharmaceutical ingredient subsidiary Euroapi will be listed on the Paris Stock Exchange on May 6 on the basis of a distribution parity of one Euroapi share for twenty-three Sanofi shares.