The Paris Stock Exchange is expected to be stable at the opening on Wednesday, still caught in a dense flood of business news and economic indicators, after reaching new highs the day before.
The futures contract for the flagship CAC 40 index fell by 0.02% around forty minutes before the opening of the meeting. On Tuesday, it finished with a closing record, 7,677.47 points (+0.48%), having earlier established a session high, 7,686.03 points.
This is the third consecutive closing record for the Parisian index.
Investors will still have plenty to do on Wednesday, with inflation figures in France shortly before the start of the session and those in Germany in the middle of the day.
In the United States, new data on job creations in the private sector are expected on Wednesday, before the official monthly report published on Friday.
And in the evening, the decision of the American central bank concerning its key interest rates will be revealed. The markets have no doubt that they will remain stable this time again, but are hoping for signs on the decision of the next meeting in March, where they hope for a decline.
Since Powell’s press conference in December, during which he admitted that the monetary policy committee had discussed rate cuts, the markets have decided that March would be a decisive meeting, summarizes Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets.
But investors also have a lot of company results to take into account, even if the CAC 40 has none on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Wall Street, Google and Microsoft ended the year 2023 with revenues and profits – more than $20 billion each for the last quarter – higher than expectations. But this was not enough and the shares were heading towards a decline, judging by the post-session electronic exchanges.
In Europe, Novartis, Banco Santander and the largest capitalization Novo Nordisk have published their results.
Among the values to follow
Michelin: the group confirmed on Tuesday that it was one of the European tire manufacturers subject to unannounced inspections by the European Commission, along with Continental, Nokian and Goodyear.
Vivendi: the French media and publishing giant Vivendi announced on Tuesday the validation by its supervisory board of a proposed split into four entities: Canal+, Havas, a company bringing together publishing and distribution (Lagardre and Prisma Media) as well as than an investment company.
Schneider Electric: the heavyweight in electrical services was the victim of a ransomware cyberattack in mid-January, however limited to the Sustainability Business division, which provides customer energy management services, we learned from a spokesperson for the group.
SEB: the specialist in small household appliances, revised upwards its main performance indicator for 2023 on Tuesday after the publication of provisional annual sales slightly above 8 billion euros, it explains in a press release.
Nexans: the French industrial cables group is the target of an investigation by the competition authority concerning the energy sector in the Overseas Territories, it announced Tuesday evening in a press release.