The Paris stock market is trying to escape a 7th consecutive session of decline (it would be the longest of the current year), and this could depend on the Nasdaq's ability to cut its losses by 5:35 pm.
As for the Euro-Stoxx50, which is losing -0.2% (to 4,218), it would take a minor miracle not to end up on a 7th decline, and at its lowest since August 24.

Red dominates Wall Street, except for the Dow Jones, which claws back 0.1%.
The S&P500 plunged further into the red (-0.4%), but not as badly as an hour ago (-0.8%).
The Nasdaq, which had plunged -1.5% in the wake of Apple, is now down just -1.1%.
Apple posted a second consecutive session down -3.5% for the same reason: Beijing is beginning to restrict or ban the use of foreign-brand smartphones by Chinese civil servants in the workplace.

It's clear to everyone that this penalizes Apple in particular, especially 10 days before the presentation and a few weeks before the launch of the '15' version of its i-Phone.

Investors have another reason for gloom with the publication of a flurry of statistics this Thursday on both sides of the Atlantic, including GDP growth in the Eurozone, revised downwards by -0.2% (to +0.1%).

Nor is there any cause for rejoicing in the United States, where non-agricultural productivity rose by just 3.5% at an annualized rate in the second quarter of 2023, according to the Labor Department, which had announced a 3.7% increase in preliminary estimates a month ago.

These productivity gains compared with the previous quarter are based on both a 1.9% rise in production and a 1.5% reduction in the number of hours worked, their first reduction since the second quarter of 2020.

Given a 5.7% rise in hourly wages (2 pts above inflation), non-agricultural unit labor costs in the US rose by 2.2% in Q2 2023, despite this rise in productivity.

The robustness of the labor market continues to surprise: the number of jobless claims in the US fell by a further -13,000 in the week to August 28, to 216.000, according to the Labor Department (the lowest total for 7 months).

The four-week moving average - considered to be a better indicator of the underlying trend in the labor market - shows a clear drop of 8,500 in the number of registrations compared with the previous week, to 229,250.

Finally, the number of people receiving regular benefits fell by 40,000 to 1,000,000.000 to 1,679,000 in the week to August 21, the most recent period available for this statistic, which may be explained by retirements (while spring graduates are starting to land jobs).

The news is not good in Europe, starting with Germany, which is suffering a -0.8% contraction in industrial production (instead of the -0.3% expected) as energy prices continue to weigh on factory profitability.

Plagued by Germany, Europe as a whole was close to stagnation in Q2 2023: seasonally-adjusted GDP rose by 0.1% in the Eurozone and remained stable in the EU compared with the previous quarter, according to Eurostat, which had previously announced growth of 0.3% for the Eurozone.

In the eurozone, household final consumption expenditure remained stable and that of general government rose by 0.2%, while GFCF increased by 0.3%. Exports fell by 0.7% and imports rose by 0.1%.

In the EU, Lithuania (+2.9%) recorded the strongest quarter-on-quarter increase in GDP, followed by Slovenia (+1.4%) and Greece (+1.3%). The biggest declines were seen in Poland (-2.2%), Sweden (-0.8%) and Austria (-0.7%).

The fixed-income markets are trying to halt the slide that began on Friday, but it's proving laborious and unconvincing, with only -0.5 basis points on T-Bonds at 4.2880% (the FED may not have finished raising rates, and the meeting at the beginning of November could result in a new round of tightening).

In its 'Beige Book' published on Wednesday, the Fed did, however, mention a slowdown in US activity and price growth in recent weeks, as well as an easing of wage pressures (and the word 'inflation' is a little less frequent in the monthly summary).

Yields on benchmark government bonds in Europe are easing a little, to 2.623% on the German Bund (i.e. -3.5Pts), to 3.148% on our OATs (-3.8Pts).

Brent crude oil remains stable at a high level, at around $90.5 (-0.15%).

In French company news, Nexity announces the effective sale of its activities in Portugal to Orion European Real Estate Fund V, a real estate investment fund managed by Orion Capital Managers.

Air France-KLM says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Etihad Airways to strengthen their collaboration, in particular by extending their codeshare and interline agreements introduced in 2012, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.

Capgemini announced on Thursday that it will collaborate with US enterprise software developer Salesforce to deliver a new generation of customer experiences based on generative AI.


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