The European stock markets, with the exception of London, rebounded on Monday at the end of an indecisive session following last week's turbulence linked to the announcement of early parliamentary elections in France.

In Paris, the CAC 40 ended up 0.91% at 7,571.57 points, after losing more than 6% last week. Germany's Dax advanced by 0.4%. The British Footsie, penalized by the utilities sector, lost 0.06%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index gained 0.86% and the FTSEurofirst 300 0.15%. The Stoxx 600 gained 0.09% after losing 2.4% last week, its biggest weekly loss since October.

At the time of closing in Europe, the Dow Jones was stable (-0.01%), while the Standard & Poor's 500 gained 0.16% and the Nasdaq 0.15%, the latter two indices consolidating their recent records. The rise was driven by the new technologies sector (+0.42%), with Nvidia hitting an all-time high of $133.73 and Apple (1.85%), the world's largest market capitalization.

In the eurozone, where indices were shaken last week by the announcement of early parliamentary elections in France, which could result in a victory for extremist parties, concerns over France's budget plan eased to some extent. This led to a rise in the euro, a fall in the EuroStoxx volatility index to 19.91 points, and a reduction in the spread between German and French sovereign rates.

This relief could be short-lived, however, at least until the results of the parliamentary elections on July 7.

"A French challenge to the eurozone's budget agreements would be problematic and have far-reaching implications", warned JPMorgan analysts, adding that "at this stage, the situation in the run-up to the first round is still very indecisive".

On a sectoral level, the European banking index, which lost over 8% last week, rebounded by 1.26%, while the basic resources index (-0.74%) suffered from weak Chinese industrial production in May.

VALUES IN EUROPE

Air France-KLM dropped 2.24% as the airline said on Monday it did not expect traffic to increase during the Olympic Games, as some tourists are likely to avoid Paris, while traffic growth in China remains slow.

Adidas gave up 2.58% after the Financial Times reported that a corruption investigation had been opened against the German sports equipment manufacturer in China.

ING advanced by 2.84%, the Dutch group having announced that it was aiming for revenue growth of 4% to 5% a year until 2027.

Topdanmark soared 22.24% after an offer from Finnish insurer Sampo (-1.22%) valued the Danish group at $4.7 billion.



INDICATORS OF THE DAY

Eurozone labor costs rose sharply in the January-March period, by 5.1%, according to the Statistical Office of the European Union.

Manufacturing activity in the New York area fell less sharply than expected in June, with the Empire State index at -6.00 after -15.6 in May, shows the survey by the Federal Reserve's regional office.

CURRENCIES

The dollar retreated by 0.06% on Monday, but reached its highest level since May 2 against a basket of reference currencies, mainly due to the euro's weakness, against a backdrop of political risk in France.

At the close of trading on Europe's stock markets, the single European currency was up 0.18% at $1.0719, following a 0.88% decline last week. Marine Le Pen, whose party is expected to win the parliamentary elections, sought to allay fears by saying she did not want Emmanuel Macron to resign and was "respectful of institutions", in an interview with Le Figaro.

RATES

The yield on the ten-year German Bund, the benchmark for the eurozone, ended up 5.6 basis points (bps) at 2.416%, while the spread with the French OAT of the same maturity fell to 74.53 bps from a differential of over 82 bps on Friday.

The European Central Bank's (ECB) chief economist, Philip Lane, played down the need for intervention in French bonds on Monday, and Christine Lagarde said she was attentive to the smooth functioning of financial markets.

In the U.S., the yield on ten-year Treasuries, down 2.3 basis points on Friday, rose 7.6 basis points to 4.2887%, boosted by the release of the Empire State index and in anticipation of an intervention by several Fed officials.

OIL

The prospect of increased demand for crude oil in the US over the summer offset mixed indicators from China: Brent gained 0.85% to $83.32 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) advanced 1.1% to $79.31.

TUESDAY: (Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Bertrand Boucey)