The Paris stock market has shown surprisingly little volatility since 9:45 a.m., with the counter stuck at around -0.4%, towards 7,520 points, penalized in particular by the downturn in the automotive sector, led by Renault (-8.4%), Stellantis (-5.4%) and Michelin (-4.4%).
The Euro-Stoxx50 also remains stuck within a narrow range (-0.4 to -0.5%) at around 4,370pts.
Wall Street reopened lower, with the Dow -0.2%, the S&P -0.5% and the Nasdaq -0.6% (at 12,080).

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book stressed that the banking crisis in March had weighed on financial activity, particularly in the San Francisco and New York regions, while also pointing to some decline in commercial real estate.

On the economic front, Thursday's session was marked by the publication of the Philadelphia Fed index in the United States.
Expected to show a slight upturn, the Philly Fed's index fell from -23.2 in March to -31.3 this month - its lowest level since May 2020 - and its eighth consecutive contraction.

In the same negative dynamic, the index of leading indicators continued to decline in March, the Conference Board announced today, reinforcing the scenario of a recession in the months ahead.

This index, considered to be a precursor, fell for the 12th consecutive month, posting a further decline of 1.2% in March after its 0.5% drop in February. The decline was greater than consensus expectations, taking the index to its lowest level since November 2020.
Disappointingly, sales of existing homes in the United States fell by 2.4% last month compared with February, to 4.44 million annualized and seasonally adjusted (SA), according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
The median sales price fell by 0.9% year-on-year, to $375,700, and the stock of unsold existing homes rose by 1% month-on-month to 980,000 at the end of March, representing 2.6 months of inventory at the current rate.
US jobless claims rose by 5,000 in the week to April 10, to 245,000 from 240,000 (revised from 239,000) the previous week.

The four-week moving average - considered a better indicator of the underlying trend in the job market - came in at 249,750, down an anecdotal 500 from one week to the next.

Finally, the number of people receiving regular benefits rose by 61,000 to 1,865,000 in the week to April 3, the latest week available for this statistic.

In Europe, producer prices in Germany fell by 2.6% in March compared with February, bringing their year-on-year rise to 7.5%, announced Destatis, the Federal Statistics Office, on Thursday.

This figure marks a clear slowdown compared with February, which saw producer prices rise by 15.8% across the Rhine.

Destatis explains this deceleration by the turnaround in electricity and natural gas prices, which began in early 2023 but only really materialized in March due to a favorable base effect.
Economists were forecasting a much less pronounced slowdown in producer prices in March, with a consensus of 9.8% on an annual basis.

This morning, investors took note of a fall in business sentiment in France in April, for the second month running, according to the synthetic indicator calculated by Insee, which dropped one point to 102, but remains above its long-term average (100).
On the bond front, yields erased the previous day's deterioration, with OATs down 3pts to 2.978%, Bunds down 4pts to 2.465%... and T-Bonds down 6.5pts to 3.5370%.

Market operators will also be keeping an eye on the day's many corporate results, following the mixed accounts unveiled last night by Tesla and IBM.

In French company news, Renault is down -8% despite a 30% rise in C.A and a price hike: investors fear the effects of a price war launched by Tesla, with a 6th cut in the US announced on Wednesday evening (Tesla has a volume rationale and is sacrificing its margins, which could cripple sales of the Megan E-Tech sold at a higher price than the American's first models).
Renault Group reports sales up 14.1% to 535,000 vehicles, with sales in Europe up 27.3% in a market up just 16.2%.

L'Oréal last night reported Group sales up 13.0% to 10.38 billion euros in Q1 2023 on a like-for-like basis (i.e. at identical structure and exchange rates).

Getlink reports first-quarter 2023 sales of €506.9 million, up 126%, including 23% growth on a like-for-like basis, confirming its confidence in its ability to exceed EBITDA of €910 million in 2023.

Finally, for the first quarter of 2023, the Publicis communications group reported net income of 3.08 billion euros, up 10% on a reported basis, including positive currency and scope effects, as well as organic growth of 7.1%.


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