The Paris stock market is down by more than 1.1% at 7,445, around the 7,480-point mark, penalized in particular by the heavy fall of Teleperformance (-15%, see below) and Dassault Systèmes (-7%).
The Euro-Stoxx50 is no better off, with -1% at 4,333, Amsterdam is down by -1.3%, and Frankfurt is holding back the overall decline with -0.7%.

Since the start of the week, the sessions have been punctuated by the publication of an avalanche of corporate results on both sides of the Atlantic, results which do not seem to be encouraging investors to push the Paris index higher after the series of record highs set in recent days.

Several CAC 40 stocks, such as Danone, Eurofins, Kering, Orange, Safran and Teleperformance, have published their first-quarter activity figures.

Other European heavyweights such as Beiersdorf, KPN, Roche and Credit Suisse also released their accounts last night or this morning.

US durable goods orders for March rose by +3.2% instead of the +0.5 to +0.7% anticipated, and aeronautical orders climbed by over 10%: if these are subtracted, 'non-transportation' orders rose by just +0.3%.
The US trade deficit shrank by -8.1% to 84.6 billion in March, thanks to higher exports of military equipment.

In France, the number of jobseekers in category A fell by 1.3% in metropolitan France (-35,600) this quarter, and by 5.8% over one year, according to Dares.

Overall, the number of jobseekers in categories A,B,C fell by 0.4% this quarter (-19,000) and by 3.0% over one year.

On average, in Q1 2023, in mainland France, the number of people registered with Pôle emploi and obliged to look for work (categories A, B, C) stood at 5,089,600. Of these, 2,801,400 were unemployed (category A) and 2,288,100 were in reduced activity (categories B, C).

In France (including overseas departments and regions, excluding Mayotte), the number of jobseekers in category A stood at 3,016,000, according to Dares. It fell by 1.2% over the quarter (-5.9% year-on-year). The number of jobseekers in categories A, B and C stood at 5,369,300, down 0.4% over the quarter and 3.0% year-on-year.

Bond markets stabilized after the previous day's rally: OATs and Bunds deteriorated marginally, by +1 to +1.5 basis points.
Across the Atlantic, T-Bonds were down slightly, with yields rising from 3.398% to 3.4154%.
This does not 'make a difference' to the Eurozone, but the Dollar is down -0.5% (Dollar Index at 101.35) and -0.8% against the Euro to 1.1060.

On the oil market, crude oil prices are down again, by -1% on London-listed 'Brent' (to $80) ahead of the mid-afternoon release of weekly US oil inventories.

Bonds continue to benefit from their safe-haven status, with the yield on 10-year Treasuries falling back below 3.40%.

In addition to the numerous earnings releases, market players will be paying close attention to the publication of US durable goods orders in the early afternoon.

With industrial confidence appearing to be at half-mast, the trend in US new orders is likely to be increasingly bearish over the coming months.

In French company news, Teleperformance last night reported Q1 sales of 2 billion euros, up 1.9% on a like-for-like basis (including the impact of the elimination of the contribution from Covid contracts for 131 million euros).

This morning, the group also announced its intention to acquire Luxembourg-based Majorel, a specialist in customer experience management, for three billion euros.

Also last night, the Carrefour group reported Q1 sales of 22 billion euros, up 12.3% on Q1 2022 on a like-for-like basis.

This morning, enterprise software publisher Dassault Systèmes (-7%) reported first-quarter 2023 non-IFRS EPS up 1% to 0.28 euros, and an operating margin of 31%, compared with 35% for the same period last year.
Kering, which reported a weak +1% increase in sales (same score for Gucci), fell by -3%.

Safran reported adjusted sales for the first quarter of 2023, up 29.4% to 5.27 billion euros, including 24.7% growth on an organic basis.
Nexans fell -7% after reporting sales up by just 2%, with the outlook more uncertain according to management (which nevertheless maintained its targets).

Finally, Danone reported quarterly sales of 6.96 billion euros, up 11.6% on a reported basis and 10.5% on a comparable basis, with a price effect of +10.3% and a volume/mix effect of +0.2%.

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