The Paris stock market ended the day down 0.56% at 7531 points, with banking stocks under pressure as the Governor of the Banque de France predicted two more minimum rate hikes in Europe yesterday.

Against this backdrop, Société Générale lost 3.2%, behind BNP Paribas (-2.4%) and Crédit Agricole (-1.5%).

On the bond market, OATs eased to -11Pts at 2.945%, and Bunds to -12Pts at 2.3730%.

On the statistics front, today's US figures were a little unexpected: the US Commerce Department announced a 9.6% jump in new home sales in March (to 683,000 transactions on an annualized basis), well above the market consensus (after -3.9% in February).

In contrast to this upturn in real estate, consumer confidence in the United States deteriorated sharply in April, to 101.3 this month, compared with 104 in March (monthly survey published on Tuesday by the Conference Board).

While the component of consumers' assessment of the current situation improved to 151.1 in April from 148.9 last month, the sub-index of their expectations fell to 68.1, compared with 74 the previous month.

With the exception of December 2022, a month in which it briefly rebounded, this latter indicator is now below the 80-point threshold for the 14th consecutive month, a phenomenon that generally heralds a recession in the coming year, ConfBoard points out in its press release.

In the news from French companies, the M6 group has announced current operating income (EBITA) of €59.5 million for the first quarter of 2023, a margin down 1.8 points to 19%, on sales down 3% to €312.9 million 'in a deteriorated economic context'.

Alstom reports that it has won a contract from Quebec City, Canada, to supply 34 Citadis tramways, worth a total of around 900 million euros (or 1.34 billion Canadian dollars).

Voltalia announces the commissioning of its Sud Vannier wind farm: with a capacity of 23.6 megawatts, this is its first wind farm in the Grand Est region, and its third in the northeast quarter of France after those at Sarry and Molinons.

Finally, Safran Landing Systems announces the signature of a contract with Airbus Defence and Space to supply the braking system, including wheels and brakes, for the Eurodrone.

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