(Boursier.com) — Despite a complicated last session, the CAC40 puts an end to a series of three consecutive weeks of decline. Over five days, the Paris star index gained 1.82%, to 5,867 points this Friday evening. After a nice jump at the start of the week, hopes of seeing the Fed delay its rate of monetary tightening fell into the water with the announcement of solid employment figures in the United States. The Labor Department has indeed reported more job creations than expected at 263,000 and a drop in the unemployment rate to 3.5%. Fed funds rate futures now reflect a 90% chance of a three-quarter point hike in the fed funds rate next month, up from 85% before the jobs report was released.
Something to darken the horizon of investors again as the quarterly season is about to begin. And the first signs are hardly encouraging, especially on the side of tech and chip manufacturers with two ‘warnings’ signed AMD and Samsung Electronics in recent hours. To make matters worse on the inflationary front, crude oil prices rebounded sharply this week with OPEC+’s decision to reduce its production quotas by 2 million barrels per day. The barrel of Brent is showing a gain of around 9% over five days, to $97.2. An ounce of gold is trading around $1,710 and Bitcoin is moving close to $19,600 on Coindesk.
In this environment, investors continued to take refuge in cash and the greenback. The dollar index is at its highest level in 20 years (112.5 pts). As for the euro, it is still moving well below parity, around $0.97.
In business news, Casino and M6 have spoken again.
VALUES
* McPhy soars by 16.9%. Portzamparc had raised its advice last week on the issue of ‘keep’ to ‘buy’. The stock market’s fall in recent weeks seems excessive for the brokerage house, which recalled that the group should receive a maximum amount of public aid of 114 ME for its electrolyser gigafactory project in Belfort.
* CGG rises 16.3% in the wake of crude prices. A jump that brings the increase in value since January 1 to more than 30%! As often, the oil services group has followed the evolution of black gold prices. However, the latter recovered strongly after the choice of OPEC+ to cut its production by 2 mbd. Joe Biden expressed his disappointment on Thursday with the OPEC + plans. The US president and several White House officials have said the United States is considering all possible alternatives to keep prices from rising.
* Valneva takes 15% after having raised 102.9 million euros during a call to the market in the United States and Europe. “The financing was carried by the American fund Deep Track Capital, a specialist in the health sector, and also included existing shareholders such as the French public investment bank, Bpifrance”, specified the Nantes biotech.
* Renault wins nearly 10%. The manufacturer was boosted by a note from Oddo BHF which raised its opinion on the value to ‘outperform’ while raising its target from 35 to 55 euros. After the success of the operational recovery of the diamond group and while its commercial offensive will accelerate significantly, the analyst has revised its estimates sharply (+20% over 2022-2025) which now stand well above the consensus (32% in 2023, 54% in 2024, 73% in 2025 at EBIT level) due to a more optimistic view of the group’s recovery (but not of its volumes). The broker believes that the consensus could begin to revise its expectations on the occasion of the next CMD.
* TotalEnergies gain 9%. The energy giant was supported by the strength of black gold prices and by a note from Berenberg which reiterated its ‘buy’ opinion on the file… The investor day of September 28 enabled the group to announce the payment of a special dividend of 1 euro per share and a payout ratio of 35 to 40% of operating cash flow as a range of future returns for shareholders. The company remains well positioned to grow in liquefied natural gas (LNG) over the medium term, has an attractive pipeline of conventional projects to support exploration and production (E&P) cash flow, and continues to have plans ambitious growth plans for renewable energy generation capacity in the industry, says the broker.
Conversely, * Eramet drop of 16.2%. In a note dedicated to the mining sector, Berenberg explains that the compartment is facing a series of significant challenges and is degrading several big names in the industry, Anglo American in the lead. The slowing global economy, deteriorating relations between the West and Russia and China, as well as the negative impact of zero Covid policies and ongoing challenges in China’s real estate sector are creating a number of headwinds important for the sector. In this darkening context, central banks are continuing to tighten their monetary policy. The analyst thus believes that the stagflationary environment should persist until 2023, with miners caught between rising costs and taxes on the one hand and a strong dollar and weakened demand on the other, pushing prices down. raw material. Exane BNP Paribas has downgraded Eramet to ‘neutral’ with a target cut from 123 to 88 euros.
* M6 logically falls by 14%. The strong speculation on the title after the failure of the merger with TF1 ended Monday evening with the announcement of Bertelsmann. The German group, which owns 48.3% of the ‘six’, finally gave up selling its stake, citing “legal risks and uncertainties” linked to the approval of the antitrust authorities. The company has however “received several financially attractive offers”. “RTL Group remains convinced that market consolidation is necessary to compete with global technology platforms – and that market consolidation will happen sooner or later in European TV markets. With a strong presence in TV, radio and streaming, the M6 Group will play a key role in any further consolidation of the French television industry,” said RTL Group, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann.
* Casino plunged another 12.5%, bringing its liabilities since January 1 to 63%. Heavily indebted despite a vast program of disposals, the distributor is under pressure from its creditors and in particular from French banks: Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Natixis. Seeing the passage of time and a group whose debt still reached 7.5 billion euros in the first half, the French banks would carry out “strategic reflections, in connection with Casino, around a refocusing on France with Monoprix, Franprix and Cdiscount “, believes ‘BFM Business’, citing sources familiar with the matter. Several options are on the table…
* Orpea gives up 9.5%. AlphaValue downgraded the file to ‘reduce’ while cutting its target from 13.4 to 9.81 euros. SocGen for its part reiterated its ‘hold’ opinion and its objective of 18.5 euros. The title of the dependency care specialist had already lost more than 13% last week, weighed down by the confirmation of a marked deterioration in its financial situation and a possible break in banking covenants in the second half.
* Nexity dropped by 9.5%, the lowest since 2012! The real estate operator remained weighed down by the presentation of its objectives for the period 2022-2026. For Oddo BHF, if the guidance is reassuring, the company’s level of indebtedness will still be relatively high since management is aiming for a net financial debt before lease obligations of less than 2 times EBITDA. Moreover, the objectives are based on the assumption that the new housing market will remain stable, but in the medium term, there is little visibility on the evolution of reservations…
* Elior loses 4.8%. Deutsche Bank lowered its target from 2.5 to 2.2 euros while remaining to ‘keep’. The broker explains that the group is at a disadvantage in the sector given its creation nearly 30 years ago, compared to its two big competitors (Sodexo and Compass) in the 1960s; of its size 5 times smaller compared to its two main counterparts; and its exposure to only 5 countries in the world (45% in France – 55% of activity in Italy, Spain, UK and the United States), while the two leaders are present in approximately 60 countries, even if they are heavily exposed to the United States.