The Paris Bourse (-0.1% vs. +0.5% at midday) reversed course in the wake of US indices, which opened on new all-time highs (the 26th for the S&P500 at 5,340) before slipping back into the red.
The Dow Jones lost between -0.7% and -0.8%, while the S&P fell by between -0.1% and -0.2%.
Only the Nasdaq (+0.3%) survived after a +1% gain at the opening (and a test of 17,000pts) in the wake of Nvidia, which gained as much as +10.2% to $1,047, i.e. +$230 billion in additional capitalization (to $2,600 billion, i.e. 25 times its sales).A)

The American giant Nvidia, which has consolidated its status as the world's third-largest capitalization behind Microsoft and is now nipping at Apple's heels ($2,928 billion 'capi'), is likely to post a +100% rise if the close is above $1,000.
Nvidia weighs as much as all the multinationals making up the DAX40 index (the German economy has a GDP of 4.008 billion in GDP), or as much as Amazon + Tesla (which have much higher sales).

'Nvidia did not disappoint with its quarterly results', says Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet Asset Management.

It's been a long time since the global economy has been so dependent on a single company", the analyst points out (Nvidia has quite simply added $1.325 billion in capi since January 1, representing 90% of the S&P500's performance).

"For the stock markets, Nvidia should continue to be a must-have this year, and probably in the years to come", he adds.

Nvidia's performance overshadowed the concerns raised by the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting, which contained a number of unpleasant surprises: dissension over strategy, and the feeling that the inflation problem is far from resolved.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch barometer, the probability of a rate hike in September is now estimated at less than 50%, compared with 51.6% yesterday.

On the US data front, growth in the US private sector accelerated sharply in May, according to S&P Global's composite PMI, which rose to a 25-month high of 54.4 in flash estimates, compared with 51.3 in final data for the previous month.

S&P Global points out that the "services" sector is driving this increase, posting its strongest production growth for a year, while the manufacturing sector is also showing more vigorous growth.
However, new home sales in the USA fell by 4.7% in April (7.7% on an annualized basis), according to statistics published by the Commerce Department on Thursday.
Seasonally adjusted annualized new home sales were 634,000 last month, compared with a revised 665,000 in March.000 (revised figure) in March.
The median price of a new home reached $433,500 in April, compared with $439,500 the previous month, and the average level was $505,700, down from $527,400 in March.
Finally, the Labor Department announced a drop of -8.000 (to 215,000).
The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came in at 219,750, an anecdotal increase of 1,750 on the previous week.

The number of people receiving regular benefits rose by 8,000 to 1,794,000 in the week to April 29, the most recent period available for this statistic.

On the bond front, given the strength of the PMI, the yield on ten-year Treasuries rose by +6.5pts to 4.500%, its worst level of the week.
In Europe, the deterioration observed the previous day continued, with +7pts on our OATs at 3.097% and on Italian BTPs at 3.904%, and +7.3pts on Bunds at 2.6070%.

In Europe, the HCOB composite PMI flash index of overall activity in the eurozone rose from 51.7 in April to 52.3 in May, signaling a third consecutive monthly increase in the region's private sector activity levels.

In France, the HCOB composite flash PMI index of overall activity fell for the first time since the start of the year, dropping from 50.5 in April to 49.1 in May, and thus returning to contraction territory after a brief return to growth.

The dollar weakened on Thursday, relinquishing its previous day's gains (-0.3% against the euro at 1.0860).
Tight interest rates penalized gold, which digested its recent record highs and settled at $2,345, its May 15 level.

In French company news, Stellantis announced on Thursday the launch of the second tranche of its share buyback program for 2024, up to a maximum of one billion euros.

The Mauritian Prime Minister's Office has awarded the Thales-led consortium the contract to set up a national identity system. The aim of this project is to improve the services offered to citizens and reinforce the security of their identity.

Finally, Lagardère announces the appointment of Grégoire Castaing as Group Executive Vice President (DGA) in charge of Finance and member of the Executive Committee, effective June 3.

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