The Paris stock market continues its one-man downward trend (while all European markets are up, 2 out of 3 indices are at their zenith on Wall Street, climbing into record territory).
The CAC40 (-1%) is sinking below 7,500 points (down to 7,458).500 points (down to around 7,458), penalized by declines in Teleperformances and L'Oréal (-3.8%), Airbus and Legrand (-2.5%), Carrefour (-1.7%)... no sector has been spared, not even the oil companies (Total-Energie frozen at 62E when the barrel of oil rises back to $87 in London).
The CAC40 is down -2% for the week, -9% for the 2nd quarter and -1% since January 1st.
Conversely, the Nasdaq (+0.6%) passes the 18,000 mark, beats a new all-time record at 18,035, gains +1.5% for the week, +9.5% for the 2nd quarter and posts +19.5% since January 1st... and the Nasdaq-100 climbed above 20,000 to finish on a high note (20,017), a fivefold increase since February 2016 and a doubling since the end of June 2020.
Record also broken for the S&P500 (+0.5%) at 5,502 (after 5,523 at the high), i.e. +1% over the week, +5% over the quarter and +15.6% since January 1st.

Wall Street benefited at the best time - the last session of the month and of the 1st half - from a boost from 'macro' with a good 'PCE' index.
The annual inflation rate fell by -0.1% as expected to 2.6% in gross data and by 0.2 points to 2.6% in underlying data (excluding energy and food).
This compares with an anticipated decline of -0.1% in 'core' data.

The Commerce Department, which publishes these figures, also reports that US household spending rose by 0.2% in May compared with the previous month, while incomes rose by 0.5%.

A clear majority (58%) of market participants still expect the US central bank to lower its key rates at the end of its September meeting, but strong growth and persistent inflation have called into question the idea that the Fed could make several rate cuts this year.

US T-Bonds, which had fallen sharply since the start of the week, tried to recover, but to no avail: the '10-yr' tightened by +5pts to 4.338% (a spectacular turnaround since 3 p.m.).
Our OATs fared no better, tightening by +3pts to 3.303%, while Bunds shifted by +4.5pts to 2.4950%: the OAT/Bund spread remained above 83pts.
OAT holders are showing their nervousness ahead of the first round of French parliamentary elections on Sunday.

"If the latest polls are to be believed, the most likely scenario is that of a hung parliament with no dominant party", point out Danske Bank analysts.

"In such a context, the markets' worst fears surrounding vast increases in budget spending should ease, as the new government will inevitably have to accept compromises in order to pass its bills", stresses the Danish bank.


Investors took note of several statistics in Europe this morning: French consumer spending on goods rebounded in May by 1.5% in volume terms (after -0.9% in April, a figure revised down by 0.1 points on the initial estimate).

In addition, over one year, consumer prices in France are expected to rise by 2.1% in June 2024, down from 2.3% the previous month.

The same trend was observed in Spain, where inflation fell again in June, as announced by the National Statistics Institute (Ine) on Friday, mainly due to lower fuel prices.

But the political news in the United States also prompts caution, as Donald Trump seems to have been far more convincing than Joe Biden last night in the first debate between the two main presidential candidates.

According to a CNN poll conducted overnight, Donald Trump was the clear winner of this first televised duel in the run-up to the November elections, with 67% of viewers giving him the victory, compared with 33% for the outgoing president, who was judged to be tired and confused.

On the oil market, crude oil prices remain on an upward trend, with a barrel of Brent rising by 0.7% towards $87.

The euro remains perfectly unchanged at $1.0700 on the eve of this crucial weekend.

In French company news, Lagardère announces that its Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Arnaud Lagardère as CEO, following the partial lifting of the management ban imposed on him on April 29.

Poujoulat has reported net income of 10 million euros for its 2023-24 financial year, compared with nearly 26.2 million for the previous year, and EBITDA down 38% to less than 31.1 million, on sales down 12.4% to nearly 352.3 million.

Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.