The control room of Euronext, the company that manages the Paris Stock Exchange (AFP/Archives/ERIC PIERMONT)
The Paris Stock Exchange is moving close to equilibrium (+0.04%) on Friday, the latest wave of corporate results not enough to relegate fears of a global recession to the background, despite a strong expansion of the French economy in April.
The CAC 40 index grabbed 2.75 points to 7,541.58 points around 10:10 a.m. Thursday, he dropped 0.14% after hitting a new record the day before at 7,599.35 points.
The French economy recorded “its strongest expansion for almost a year”, according to the PMI index for April published Friday by the agency S&P Global, supported by services while the manufacturing index was disturbed by strikes against pension reform.
But across the Atlantic, the economic picture is less encouraging. New weekly jobless claims rose more than expected, manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area fell to the lowest since May 2020, and existing home sales contracted.
Indicators, all worse than expected, which pushed the New York Stock Exchange indices into the red on Thursday.
To this were added statements by the president of the regional branch of the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia. “I foresee that additional tightening may be necessary” to reach a level restrictive enough to effectively slow economic activity and ensure that high inflation goes into the nails, said Patrick Harker.
Then, “once we get to that point, which is likely to happen this year, I expect us to keep rates at that level and let monetary policy do its job,” the official detailed.
For Sebastian Paris Horvitz, director of research at Banque Postale AM, “the cyclical inflationary surge will require the maintenance of restrictive monetary policies for a while yet”. This would be bad news for the economic situation since the rate hikes are intended to bring down inflation by slowing down the overheating of the economy.
“The judge of the peace on the direction of monetary policy will largely be the extent of the economic slowdown,” adds Sebastian Paris Horvitz.
EssilorLuxottica in shape
The global optical giant EssilorLuxottica jumped 5.08% to 184.44 euros, the day after the publication of a turnover up sharply in the first quarter and higher than analysts’ forecasts.
Solutions 30 sees red
The Solutions 30 share fell 16.17% to 1.87 euros after the publication of the group’s annual results, which recorded a net loss of 50.1 million euros in 2022, larger than estimated by the analysts surveyed. by Bloomberg, against a profit the previous year.
Ipsos badly received
Ipsos shares fell 10.95% to 49.02 euros after the group specializing in market and opinion research reported lower turnover in the first quarter, well below analysts’ expectations .
Fnac Darty moves into Portugal
The specialist in the distribution of household appliances, electronics and cultural products recorded stable sales in the first quarter of 2023, at 1.78 billion euros, and announced on Thursday an acquisition in Portugal, where it intends to strengthen its number 2.
Its action fell 3.66% to 33.74 euros.
© 2023 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends with the buttons below.
