After spending the whole session in negative territory, the Paris stock market was almost back in balance by the end of the day: at the final gong, it had only given up an anecdotal 0.09%, at 8094 points, despite Renault's performance, which took over 5% after an analyst upgrade (see below).

The Paris index thus gave up just over 1% over the past week, but maintained a gain of just over 7% since the start of the year.

This marks the CAC40's second consecutive week of decline, despite the buoyant news of recent days.

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street opened higher, with the Dow Jones up by around +0.3%, the S&P500 by +0.8% and the Nasdaq by over 1%, already in record territory thanks to a +200pt advance on Friday the 17th (above 16.900): but all these gains stem from Nvidia's +10% on Thursday, to which the stock added 1% towards $1,050, for a market capitalization of $2,600 billion.

The feverishness of the Paris and European markets is fuelled by the rise in bond yields this week: Bunds re-tested 2.60% before easing -1Pt to 2.59%, our OATs erased -1.5Pt to 3.070% (i.e. +7Pts over the week), and Italian BTPs posted -1Pt to 3.89%.

This tension stems from the week's news flow, which only reinforces the feeling that inflation remains a problem for the US economy and the FED.

In Europe, the rise in PMI indices attesting to the economic recovery could also lead to more inflation via wages and import prices (tax war between the EU, the US and China).

The negative impact on rates would have been much more obvious without Nvidia's stratospheric results and the PMI indexes attesting to the economic recovery in Europe.

T-Bonds stabilize at 4.48% for the '10-yr' and 4.94% for the '2-yr' (+1Pt) despite new 'robust' US figures: durable goods orders rose by 0.7% in April in the USA (after +0.8% in March), whereas they were expected to fall by 0.9%. Excluding defense and aerospace, they rose by 0.3% versus +0.1% expected, after -0.1% in March.

At 4 p.m., investors discovered the Michigan consumer confidence index: it came in 1.7Pt higher than expected in May, at 69.1... but significantly down on April's 77.2.
The prospect of interest rates remaining at their highest for several months to come is weighing on consumers' plans.

In France, the business climate was stable in May compared with April, according to the synthetic indicator calculated by Insee, which stood at 99, just below its long-term average (100).

Across the Rhine, the German economy grew by 0.2% in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, thanks to buoyant exports and investment spending, according to detailed statistics published on Friday, confirming the initial estimate.

The euro strengthened by 0.3% against the dollar ($1.085/EUR), while Brent crude oil rebounded at the last minute from the $81.5 mark to $81.6 (+0.1%).
For its part, the ounce of gold is trying to resist the pressure on rates at $2,335 (-1.8%), i.e. around -$100 compared with Monday.

Finally, in French company news, Alstom reports that it has placed a €750 million issue of super-subordinated ('hybrid') bonds, which was 'massively oversubscribed, reflecting strong demand from different geographical areas and investor categories'.

Teleperformance announces that its Board of Directors has decided to cancel three million treasury shares, representing 4.7% of the share capital, shares which had been repurchased under a program implemented in April 2023.

Renault's share price rises by more than 5%, posting the strongest gains on the CAC 40 and SBF 120 indices. In a note released this morning, UBS indicated that it had changed its opinion to 'neutral', from 'sell', with a price target raised from 31 to 50 euros.

Lastly, Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) gained over 8%, the day after the ski resorts and leisure parks group published its results for the first half of 2023-24, accompanied by an increase in its annual target.


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