The Paris Bourse ended the session down 1.12% at 7,513 points, penalized by the sharp decline in the luxury goods sector, with LVMH down 4.6% following its quarterly results, Kering down 4.5% (due to publish this evening) and Hermès down 2.1%.

Last night, LVMH reported organic growth of just 1% for the second quarter, below analysts' forecasts of 3%.

The stock market was led by Edenred and Eurofins, which posted +3.6% and +3.3% respectively.

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street was also in the red, with -0.9% for the Dow Jones, -1.6% for the S&P500 and -2.5% for the Nasdaq, weighed down by Tesla's -12% plunge... which dragged Lucid in its wake (-6.5%), followed by Alphabet, whose quarterly results were "not totally convincing" and which dropped -5% (Alphabet slightly exceeded estimates, but the prospect of increased capital expenditure is upsetting Wall Street).

On the statistics front, the Eurozone's HCOB composite PMI flash index fell from 50.9 in June to 50.1 in July, signalling a near-stagnation in the region's overall private sector activity, and marking the weakest growth in the current expansion period.

In France, the HCOB composite flash PMI rose slightly from 48.2 in June to 49.5 in July, but still signaled a downturn in French private sector activity, with the rate of contraction now only marginal.

In the United States, private sector growth accelerated slightly in July, according to the S&P Global composite PMI, which came in at a flash estimate of 55 for the current month, compared with 54.8 for the previous month.

In addition, after plunging 14.9% in May, new home sales in the US fell a further 0.6% in June, according to the Commerce Department, to 617,000 annualized and seasonally adjusted.

Finally, data published by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) showed that US crude oil inventories stood at 436.5 million barrels in the week to July 15, down 3.7 million barrels on the previous week.

On the bond markets, the yield on 10-year US Treasuries stagnated at 4.24%. Bunds stagnated at 2.43%, while the OAT for the same maturity was at 3.14% (+1.3Pt).

A barrel of Brent crude rose by 0.3% to $81.8, while the euro held steady at $1.085/E against the greenback.

In the news for French companies, Soitec confirmed that its sales for the first quarter of 2024-25 had fallen by 23% to 121 million euros on a reported basis, and by 24% on a like-for-like basis.

For its part, Orange reported net earnings per share of 0.28 euros for the first six months of 2024, compared with 0.30 euros a year earlier, as well as EBITDAaL up 2.5% (on a comparable basis) to 5.51 billion, in line with its annual target.

BNP Paribas saw its net income rise by 1.6% over the quarter to almost 3.4 billion euros, where analysts were expecting, on average, a profit of 2.9 billion.

Finally, Alstom announced on Wednesday that it had won a four-billion euro contract to supply and maintain 90 suburban trains for the Cologne (Germany) rail network.

Alstom has signed a new contract with EMOVA, concessionaire for the Buenos Aires metro system. The contract covers the overhaul of its fleet of 60 Alstom Metropolis 300 cars (10 trains). The contract is for three years.

Finally, Air Liquide has finalized the sale of its activities in twelve African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, DRC, Senegal and Togo) to Adenia Partners Ltd.

Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.