The Paris Stock Exchange closed in balance on Wednesday, a small easing in the bond market allowing it to narrowly escape a third session of decline this week.
The flagship CAC 40 index dropped some 0.32 points (-0.00%) and closed at its lowest level since January. On Tuesday, the Paris Stock Exchange closed at 6,997.05 points, falling below the threshold of 7,000 points for the first time since March 2023, when the banking crisis caused all world stock markets to decline.
For several days, investors have had their eyes focused on the bond market, where the yield on 10-year American bonds once again reached its highest level in more than 16 years at 4.88%, before falling to 4.73. % at the end of the session.
The ten-year German debt rate, which is a benchmark on the Old Continent, exceeded 3% on Wednesday for the first time since 2011, but also eased at the end of the session, to 2.92%.
“The problem today is the speed of rate appreciation: it is perceived as difficult to control and this is the short-term issue, but the market has no element which allows it to say whether the speed will slow down or stabilize”, comments Christopher Dembik, investment strategy advisor at Pictet AM.
For the analyst, this “panic movement on the bond market” has “fundamentally no immediate” reason, with investors waiting to be reassured about the monetary policy of the American central bank, which will meet in November “and by a risk of recession.
“The market needs to get used to” these levels, he concludes.
New CEO for Atos
Yves Bernaert, 55 (ex-Accenture Technology Europe) has been appointed CEO of the struggling French IT group Atos, the latter announced in a press release on Wednesday.
Built through acquisitions by its former boss Thierry Breton, Atos has suffered heavy losses since his departure for the European Commission in 2019 and is trying to restructure its activities.
The group’s share price fell 6.70% to 5.91 euros.
Thales under the eye of London
The British competition authority (CMA) on Wednesday gave the green light to Hitachi’s acquisition of Thales’ railway signaling activities, after the Japanese group agreed to make certain disposals to address London’s concerns.
Thales dropped 1.91% to 128.60 euros at the end of the session.
A session without Casino
The listing of the Casino group was suspended on the Paris Stock Exchange on Wednesday, “at the request of the company, pending the publication of a press release and until further notice”, according to the Euronext website.
The group must communicate soon on “a + lock-up + agreement (binding agreement, Editor’s note) with its creditors, that is to say an agreement under which the signatories undertake to support and carry out any approach or action reasonably necessary for the implementation and completion of the financial restructuring of the group”, explained the group at the end of last week in a press release.
mgi/ys/LyS