The Paris Bourse began the session slightly down on Wednesday morning, with no current elements able to dictate a trajectory for the equity markets. The CAC40 index lost 0.3% to 7182 points.

After spending most of yesterday's session in the red, the Paris index timidly lifted its head in the last few minutes of trading, finally clawing back 0.1% to 7209 points.

The day was once again marked by an obvious weakness in trading volumes, with just 2.5 billion euros traded, reflecting the lack of conviction among market participants.

With no major indicators or results to sink their teeth into during this lacklustre week, investors are tempted to curb their appetite rather than risk losing their recent gains.

Since the start of the year, the CAC 40 is still up by more than 11%, but has fallen by almost 5% since its all-time high of 7,577 points on April 21.

Analysts warn that while the index has so far managed to defend the symbolic 7,200-point threshold, it will find it difficult to move up again in the absence of new catalysts.

Over the next few weeks, the market is likely to remain volatile as it awaits clearer indications of future developments", predicts Gilles Guibout, head of European equities at AXA IM.

"Economic first, to understand what impact the current slowdown could have on corporate earnings", stresses the strategist.

Then financial, to see what the central banks' next decisions on monetary policy will be, in order to determine what the appropriate valuation multiple should be", he adds.

At a time when stock markets are beginning to show signs of fatigue, particularly in the United States where the recent Nasdaq rally is running out of steam, it seems hard to predict where the next growth factor will come from.

Apart from France's trade deficit and the US trade balance, there are no major indicators on today's agenda.

The trade balance held steady at -9.2 BnE in April 2023, as a three-month moving average, according to the French customs authority (Direction générale des douanes). Imports and exports both fell by 0.2 BnE to 59.3 BnE and 50.1 BnE respectively.

A small glimmer of hope from Asia could, however, lighten the feverish mood currently hovering over the markets.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up 1.7% late Wednesday, with investors betting on further stimulus measures in China to bolster the fragile post-Covid economic recovery.

On Wall Street, the main indices ended with token gains on Tuesday evening in a directionless market in the absence of economic indicators.

At the final bell, the Dow Jones was close to equilibrium, while the Nasdaq nibbled 0.4% and the S&P 500 gained 0.2%.

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