The Paris Stock Exchange is marking time on this decisive day for the monetary policy of the American Federal Reserve. The central bank is preparing, except for a huge surprise, to raise its interest rates by 50 basis points and to give indications on the next reduction of its balance sheet in an attempt to contain inflation at its highest level in 40 years in the United States. United.
At 9:45 a.m., the Bedroom 40 lost 0.18% to 6,464.67 points in a business volume of 3,100 million euros.
The Fed will issue its monetary policy statement at 8 p.m. before Jerome Powell’s traditional press conference half an hour later. The US central bank is expected to announce the largest tightening since May 2000 by raising the Fed funds rate to a range of 0.75% to 1% and announce that it is preparing to reduce its balance sheet, currently around 9,000 billion. of dollars, starting in June at the rate of 95 billion dollars per month.
“Faster, stronger”
The Fed chairman is expected to try to shore up market expectations of further rate hikes, while being careful not to lose control as some FOMC members pleaded for 75-point hikes. basic. His statements before the IMF on the need to go faster and harder on rate hikes to curb inflation have raised fears about the magnitude of the movements to follow at a time when the world economy is entering a phase of lasting slowdown.
The JOLT statistic, which measures job vacancies in the United States, revealed that the number of vacancies rose to 11.5 million in March, reflecting strong tensions in the labor market, as well as the risk wage inflation. ADP Employer Services is due to publish its US private employment survey at 2:15 p.m., which should point to a slight slowdown in job creations to 383,000 in April, after 455,000 in March.
Solvay raises its EBITDA forecast
But before that, S&P Global will have unveiled at 10 a.m. its PMI activity index in the services sector in the euro zone, which should have improved thanks to the recovery of certain sectors such as tourism and catering with the relaxation of health constraints. It will be followed at 4 p.m. by the equivalent ISM survey in the United States.
Solvay increased by 4.8%. The chemical group raised its underlying gross operating surplus (EBITDA) target for 2022, after achieving record results and well above analysts’ expectations for the first quarter.
Vallourec advance of 6%. The manufacturer of seamless tubes has announced the partial restart of the exploitation of the iron mine located in Pau Branco in Brazil following an agreement from the mining authorities for a period of three months.
BNP Paribas gains 1.6%. Barclays and Morgan Stanley raised their share price targets from 62.3 to 64.3 euros for the former and from 68 to 71 for the latter.
Cyclical values retreat likeAlstomwhich lost 1.4% and Greatdown 1.9%.
TotalEnergies (+0.9%) is supported by the 2% rise in Brent prices as the European Union prepares to gradually reduce its imports of Russian oil in view of an embargo at the end of the year.