This final session of the week has been a soporific one: the Paris Bourse has lost between -0.2% and -0.3% since 9:30 this morning, and the CAC40 has remained literally trapped in an 8,080/8,096 corridor since 10:15... in algorithmic straitjacket mode.
The week will therefore end with the CAC40 down by between -1.1% and -1.2%.... which also marks a stagnation over the last 1 month.
The Parisian index is thus heading for a second consecutive week of decline, despite the buoyant news of the last few days.
The Euro Stoxx50 is down -0.5%, but posts the same weekly score as the CAC40, i.e. -1.1%.
Wall Street, on the other hand, has just reopened higher, with very homogeneous scores ranging from +0.3% to +0.4% on average: all the S&P-500 needs to do is post another +0.3% by 10.00 p.m. to line up a 5th consecutive week of gains.
The Nasdaq (16,800/16.820Pts) looks set to do just that, thanks to a +0.7% advance on Friday 17th: but all of these gains stem from Nvidia's +10% rise on Thursday (the stock added 0.6% for a market capitalization of $2,600 billion).
This is becoming a habit, as Nvidia accounted for 100% of the S&P500's rise since January 1st on Thursday evening (not even needing the rises of Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta).

The feverishness of the Parisian and European markets is fuelled by the rise in bond yields, and it's not getting any better this Friday, with Bunds up 0.5Pt to 2.606%, OATs up 1Pt to 3.095% (i.e. +8.4Pts hebdo), and Italian BTPs up 1.5Pt to 3.914%.

This tension stems from the week's news flow, which only reinforces the feeling that inflation remains a problem for the US economy and the FED.
In Europe, rising PMIs pointing to economic recovery could also bring more inflation via wages and import prices (tax wars in the EU, US and China).
The negative impact on rates would have been much more obvious without Nvidia's stratospheric results and PMIs pointing to economic recovery in Europe.
T-Bonds stabilized at 4.49% for the '10-year' and 4.95% for the '2-year', despite new 'robust' US figures: durable goods orders rose by 0.7% in April in the USA (after +0.8% in March), whereas they had been expected to fall by 0.9%. Excluding defense and aerospace, orders rose by 0.3%, compared with +0.1% expected, after -0.1% in March.

Investors are now awaiting the latest figure: the Michigan consumer confidence index.

In Europe, the business climate in France was stable in May compared with April, according to the synthetic indicator calculated by Insee, which stood at 99, just below its long-term average (100).

Across the Rhine, the German economy grew by 0.2% in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, thanks to buoyant exports and investment spending, according to detailed statistics published on Friday, confirming the initial estimate.

On the FOREX, the Euro strengthened by +0.3% against the Dollar (1.0845), while the greenback fell symmetrically by -0.3% against the major currencies ('$-Index' at 104.80 vs. 105.1 the previous day).
Brent crude bounced back in-extremis from the $81.5 floor, to $81.80 in London, while WTI rallied +0.6% to $77.5 on the NYMEX.
Gold Ounces are trying to resist the pressure from rates at $2,340, i.e. around -$100 compared with Monday.

In French corporate news, Alstom reports that it has placed a €750 million super-subordinated ('hybrid') bond issue, which was 'massively oversubscribed, reflecting strong demand from different geographical areas and investor categories'.

Teleperformance announces that its Board of Directors has decided to cancel three million treasury shares, representing 4.7% of the share capital, shares that had been bought back under a program implemented in April 2023.

Lastly, Renault has gained more than 3%, posting the biggest rise in the CAC 40 and SBF 120 indices. In a note released this morning, UBS changed its opinion to 'neutral' from 'sell', and raised its target price from €31 to €50.


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