The Paris stock market retreated a little more sharply (-0.5%), falling back to the bottom of a narrow 7,320/7,340 corridor
In neighboring France, Frankfurt dropped -0.6%, while the Euro-Stoxx50 mirrored Paris' performance with -0.5%.

On Wall Street, indices reopened lower, with the S&P500 losing -0.6%, the Nasdaq -0.8% and the Dow Jones slipping into the red.

The CAC40 did not benefit from the release of encouraging figures in France and the eurozone.
Production in the French manufacturing industry rebounded in February (+1.3% after -1.5%), as in industry as a whole (+1.2% after -1.4%), according to Insee's CVS-CJO data.

Over one month, it picked up sharply in transport equipment (+5.6% after -7.6%), especially in other transport equipment (+7.3% after -11.5%) and, to a lesser extent, in automobiles (+3.4% after -1.9%).
Meanwhile, the S&P Global composite PMI index of overall activity in France rose from 51.7 in February to 52.7 in March, signalling a second consecutive month of growth in the private sector, reaching a ten-month high.

The same trend can be seen in the eurozone, where the S&P Global composite PMI index for overall activity rose from 52 in February to 53.7 in March, indicating continued growth in eurozone activity and signaling a ten-month high.
Growth in the 'services' sector improved by +2Pts to 55, and even reached 59 in Spain.
In Germany, industrial orders jumped by +4.8% in February, and growth in 2023 is expected to be +0.3%, according to German institutes.

A small downside to this string of good surprises: growth in the private sector in France slipped to 52.7 from 54 in March, according to the monthly S&P survey.

As for the US economy, the US private sector created just 145,000 jobs in March, well below expectations, according to the monthly survey published on Wednesday by ADP, a specialist in human resources management outsourcing.

Job creation over the past month therefore slowed significantly compared with the previous month's figure of 261.000 the previous month, a number revised slightly upwards from an initial estimate of 242,000.
'The labor market is beginning to find its footing, as consumer demand slows and borrowing costs rise', comments ADP in its press release.

Another slightly worrying figure: the US trade deficit widened by +2.7% to -$70.5 billion in February, compared with -$68.7 billion the previous month (revised from an initial estimate of -$68.3 billion), according to the Commerce Department.
Finally, growth in US service sector activity slowed more sharply than expected in March (52.1 vs. 55.1 in February), according to the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) monthly survey published this Wednesday (consensus around 54.3).

The new orders component fell to 52.2 from 62.6 the previous month, while the activity sub-index declined to 55.4 from 56.3 in February.

Symmetrically, bond markets are back in the black, with yields down -9pts on our OATs to 2.689% and -9.5pts on Bunds to 2.175%.
US T-Bonds are down -6pts to 3.276%... but this does not affect the Dollar, which is back up 0.3% to 1.0915/E.

In French company news, TotalEnergies reports an agreement with the Iraqi government, confirming all the terms of the Development & Production Contract signed in 2021 and jointly defining the conditions and mutual assurances required to move forward on the GGIP project.

IT services giant Capgemini reports that it has been selected to coordinate the next-generation IoT (Internet of Things) project as part of the European Commission's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative.

Sodexo reported a 30.6% increase in net income to 440 million euros for the first half of 2023, and a 30.9% increase in operating income to 704 million (+22.5% at constant exchange rates), for an improved margin of 60 basis points to 5.8%.

Finally, on Wednesday, Orange announced its intention to issue a new tranche of hybrid bonds, and to launch at the same time a buyback offer for its existing hybrid bonds.

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