The CAC40 ended the session down just 0.26%, at 7,675 points, penalized in particular by Accor (-2.3%), Schneider Electric and Air Liquide (-1.2% each).

Over the past week, the Parisian index has nonetheless gained nearly 3%, with a gain of around 2% since the start of the year.

After four weeks of intense turbulence, the Paris market seemed calmer this week. However, it remains weakened by the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of Sunday's second round of legislative elections.

'Barring a major polling error, the political situation in France should be a little less of a marker for the CAC 40 over the next few sessions', says Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet Asset Management.

This makes sense: on average, more than 60% of the sales of major listed companies are generated abroad", he explains.

"This puts into perspective the immediate effect of the legislative elections on the business of these companies", concludes the analyst.

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street continued to set new all-time highs, with the Nasdaq Composite at 18,300 (+0.6%).

The S&P500 also set a new record at 5,550, maintaining its lead of +0.2%, while the Dow Jones remained unchanged.

In the UK, Labour's unsurprising victory in yesterday's general election, which ended 14 years of Conservative rule, was greeted with little emotion by the markets: the FT-100 remained at equilibrium for a long time before beginning to weaken (it is down 0.6% this evening).

The eagerly-awaited monthly employment figures for the United States once again proved to be a "non-event".
Indeed, they came out in line with expectations: the US economy generated 206,000 non-farm jobs in June, according to the Labor Department (consensus +200.000/+210,000).

The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 points to 4.1%, where economists were expecting only 4%, while the labor force participation rate stood at 62.6%, and average hourly earnings rose at an annual rate of 3.9%.

On the other hand, non-farm payrolls for the previous 2 months were revised sharply downwards, from 165,000 to 108,000 for April, and from 272,000 to 218,000 for May, for a total revision balance of -111,000.

US T-Bonds eased -5.5pts to 4.2900%, with the 30-yr yield virtually unchanged at 4.505% from 4.5200%.
Our OATs, on the other hand, are in high demand on the eve of the second round of parliamentary elections, easing by -7pts to 3.2100%, while Bunds are down -5.5pts to 2.5300% (the spread has contracted to +68pts).

The French figures are not good, however: in May, production was down sharply month-on-month in both manufacturing (-2.7% after +0.5% in April) and industry as a whole (-2.1% after +0.6%), according to Insee's CVS-CJO data.

Furthermore, in May 2024, France's trade balance deteriorated once again, according to CVS-CJO data from the customs administration, with the deficit widening to 7.99 billion euros from 7.56 billion the previous month.

Finally, after remaining virtually stable in April (+0.1%), German industrial production volumes fell by 2.5% in May compared with the previous month, according to seasonally and calendar adjusted data from Destatis.

Brent crude climbed 0.3% to around $87.9 a barrel, while the euro held steady against the greenback at around $1.082 a barrel.

In French company news, BASF and Engie announced that they had signed a seven-year biomethane purchase agreement, under which the French energy group will supply the German chemical giant with 2.7 to 3 terawatt-hours of biomethane over the duration of the contract.

Engie announced that it had today launched the construction of what promises to be 'one of the largest battery parks in Europe' at its Vilvoorde site in Belgium.

For its part, Renault Group said it was joining the New Energies Coalition for Transport and Logistics, intending to collaborate with industry experts to develop innovative, sustainable solutions for freight and the use of AI in the supply chain.

Finally, Technip Energies and Dutch company SBM Offshore announced the creation of Ekwil, an equally-owned joint venture entirely dedicated to the emerging floating offshore wind energy market.


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