The Paris Bourse is stepping up its losses, posting one of the biggest declines of the year: the CAC40 unexpectedly fell by -2.6% to 7,120, down 300 points since mid-afternoon last Friday.

The European markets have been hit by a real cold shower, with the Euro-Stoxx50 pulverizing the 4,300 support level and now posting a -2.3% drop to 4,250.
On Wall Street, the US indices posted a homogeneous -1% decline, but this could widen if the technos start to correct.
Traders are suddenly worried about the economy and the effects of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
Until now, they have ignored all the Fed's reminders of the need to pursue a "restrictive" monetary policy until inflation has returned to around its 2% target.

According to the Fed's 'minutes', the US economy - under the effect of rising interest rates - could be heading for a recession by the end of the year.

The markets are anticipating a 'soft landing', hence a gain of +15% since the start of the year.

Numerous economic indicators have been published, including the eagerly-awaited ADP survey of private employment, unemployment benefit registrations and the ISM services index.

And a big surprise: private-sector hiring rose sharply last month in the USA (+497,000, 2 times more than expected), providing a further sign of the strength of the US labor market

This is a spectacular upturn after May's 278,000 job creations... already considered a 'robust' score).

According to ADP, the leisure, hospitality, transportation, education and healthcare sectors were the most dynamic.

In another surprise, the US trade deficit contracted by -7.3% to -$74.4 billion in May, due to imports shrinking at a faster pace than exports.

But the key fact is the overall decline in trade: exports of goods and services fell by 0.8% to $247.1 billion, mainly due to a drop in soybean shipments.

Imports fell by 2.3% to 316.1 billion, due to lower shipments of pharmaceuticals and industrial equipment.

Finally, the number of US jobless claims rose by 12,000 in the week to June 26, to 248,000, according to the Labor Department, compared with 236,000 the previous week (the latter figure was revised downwards from the 239,000 initially announced).

But beyond today's publications, it is above all the employment figures, expected tomorrow, which will influence the trend.

On the bond market, US government bond yields jumped +10pts to a four-month high of 4.04%.

In Europe, too, bond markets have begun a slide that is pushing yields higher, with Bunds posting +13pts to 2.6090%, and our OATs soaring +14pts to 3.1620%, retracing the worst levels of late 2022.

The dollar is stable at 1.0850 euros, as are oil prices, which are consolidating at 76.4E while awaiting the release of weekly oil inventories in the USA later this afternoon.

In Paris, banking stocks are being weighed down, and profit-taking is taking place in luxury goods (notably Hermès).

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