The Paris Bourse began August's trading session on an indecisive note: initially down on 7,400, a level tested for the 1st time on February 6, the CAC40 returned to equilibrium at around 7,430.
But there's no pressure to buy or sell, and the CAC has been hovering around this pivotal price for almost 6 months (give or take 10 sessions).

After the least active '3 Witches' session in history on Friday (2.77Bn euros traded), the new deadline seems to be off to a similar start, with less than 1Bn euros traded with 35mn to go.

The Euro-Stoxx50 lost -0.3% and caught up with the US indices: the Dow Jones recorded its 11th consecutive session of gains (+0.5% to 35,410), the S&P500 its 10th out of 11 (+0.4% to 4.355) and a 9th out of 11 for the Nasdaq (+0.2% to 14,060).
The 'rebalancing' of Nasdaq weights was largely taken into account, as it did not give rise to any upheaval on Friday, nor on Monday when trading resumed.

The week promises to be particularly busy, with an avalanche of quarterly results interspersed with meetings of the major central banks on Wednesday and Thursday.
Monday is also PMI day, and the US private sector saw its growth slow significantly again in July, according to S&P Global, whose composite PMI index came in at 52.0 - a five-month low - in flash estimates for the current month, compared with 53.2 in June.

Service providers reported a weaker increase in production, while manufacturers reported broadly unchanged levels of output at the start of the third quarter", say the surveyors.

This morning in Europe, investors had taken note of the HCOB composite flash PMI index of overall activity in France.
It fell to 46.6 in July (from 47.2 in June), a 32-month low, reflecting the sharpest downturn in private sector activity since November 2020.

The picture isn't much brighter in Europe, with overall PMI down -1Pt to 48.9 (2nd month below 50) and 'services' PMI down from 52 to 51.1 (manufacturing PMI down -0.7Pt to 42.7, a long way from 50).

Releases from heavyweights Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms will be particularly closely watched, as investors question the stretched valuation of the Nasdaq index, which has jumped 34% since the start of the year.

Beyond the tech giants, many other sectors will be in the spotlight this week: automotive with GM and Ford, aerospace with Boeing, and energy with ExxonMobil.

But the week promises to be even crazier in Europe, where a number of heavyweights such as LVMH, Unilever Airbus, Stellantis, L'Oréal, TotalEnergies, Volkswagen and STMicroelectronics are scheduled to unveil their performances in the coming days.

The results of LVMH and L'Oréal will have the greatest index impact.

The week will also be marked by the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by that of the European Central Bank (ECB), scheduled for Thursday.

On the Fed side, a 25 basis point hike seems highly likely, despite recent progress in the fight against inflation.

The ECB, for its part, seems to have already decided on a rate hike, which should lead it to raise its key rates by a further 25 basis points next Thursday.

In the meantime, bond markets are easing, which is quite normal given the day's poor figures, with our OATs down 45pts to 2.9463%, Bunds down 3.5pts to 2.3830%, and on the other side of the Atlantic, T-Bonds serenely awaiting the FED meeting with -1pt to 3.829%.

The Dollar continues to 'recover' with +0.5% and the Euro is down towards 1.1080 (-1.4% in one week).

In French company news, Stellantis announced on Monday that it plans to build a second battery factory ('gigafactory') in the USA, alongside Samsung, with start-up scheduled for early 2027.

Alstom announced that it had signed a contract with Railpool, a European rolling stock leasing company, for the delivery of 50 Traxx Universal multi-system locomotives, worth up to 260 million euros.

Plastic Omnium reports a 4.1% decline in net income (Group share) to 100 million euros for the first half of 2023, but a 16.9% increase in operating margin to 210 million, 'driven by historical activities and agile, dynamic cost management'.

Finally, TotalEnergies will acquire a 50% stake in Rönesans Enerji to develop renewable projects in Turkey, including the electricity market.

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