The Paris Bourse ends the week on a high note: the CAC40 will post a second session of gains (+0.65% to 7,245) and limit the weekly decline to -0.8%.
Buyers are back in control with a little more volume this Friday, with 1.35 billion euros traded at 3:30 pm, compared with less than 0.9 billion euros the previous day.
The CAC40 gave up 0.6% this morning, retreating to the 7,150Pts mark, an important first support level.150Pts, an important 1st support level, as the Paris market has stagnated below 7,550 for the past 5 months.

The challenge for this final session of the week and for Monday will be to determine whether this low will be "paid for" with determination, or whether the index will continue its consolidation and enter a medium-term consolidation phase.
Some analysts are already worried about a possible breach of the 7,200-point threshold, which reflects an undeniable deterioration in technical indicators (logical after a series of 6 consecutive declines up to this Thursday).

The trend is rather indecisive in Europe: the E-Stoxx50 is up 0.2%, as is Frankfurt, while Milan is down 0.2%, Lisbon is off with +0.6%, and London is up +0.4%.
Wall Street is a little bolder, with spreads ranging from +0.3% (Dow Jones) to +0.4 to +0.5% (S&P500 and Nasdaq).


It should be pointed out that several dark clouds are still hanging over the markets: rising oil prices (+1.2% on WTI' to $87.8 on NYMEX), inflation, central bank monetary policy.
Fortunately, the week ended with a small improvement, with OATs and Bunds gaining -1.5 basis points to 3.134% and 2.602% respectively.
US T-Bonds erased -2 basis points to 4.24%... but the week remained negative.

Caution should therefore continue to prevail, a week ahead of what is considered a crucial monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) next Thursday.

After the publication of several indicators reflecting a slowdown in activity on the Old Continent, the financial markets are thinking that the loss of momentum in European growth argues for a 'pause' in the monetary tightening cycle.

The ECB and the Fed should raise their key rates no more than once, and then maintain them for several quarters, while watching for a slowdown in inflation", says Eric Bertrand, Head of Asset Management at Ofi Invest Asset Management.

On the energy front, the price of Brent crude climbed to $91 this evening (+1.4%), as data from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) yesterday revealed a further decline in US crude oil inventories.

On the statistics front, at 4 p.m., investors discovered US wholesale inventories, a secondary data item which came in at -0.2% (-0.1% estimated): the destocking movement is currently penalizing the industrial sector.

In the news from French companies, the STEF group last night published sales of ME 2179.1 for the 1st half, up 11% on the same period a year earlier, with net income, group share up 43% to ME 94.8.

For its part, Rubis reported sales of 3324 ME for the 1st half, up 1% on the same period a year earlier. Net income (Group share) was virtually stable, rising from 170 to 171 ME.

Capgemini announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) division of Exiger, one of the world's leading companies in the fight against financial crime, a transaction which should close in the next few months.

Finally, Viel & Cie reports a 21.7% increase in net income (group share) for the first half of 2023, to 50.9 million euros, and operating income (including associates) of 94.9 million, up 46.1%.


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