The Paris Bourse ended the session down 0.68% at 7479 points, penalized by declines in L'Oréal and Teleperformance (-3%) and Edenred (-2.2%).

The CAC40 lost almost -2% over the week, almost 1% since the start of the year.

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street was in the green for the last session of the month and the first half of the year, with gains of between 0.2% and 0.3% for the S&P, Nasdaq and Dow Jones, thanks to macro factors and in particular the good PCE index.

The annual inflation rate fell by -0.1% as expected to 2.6% on a reported basis, and by 0.2 points to 2.6% on an underlying basis (excluding energy and food), compared with an anticipated -0.1% decline on a core basis.

The Commerce Department, which published these figures, also reported that US household spending rose by 0.2% in May compared with the previous month, while household income rose by 0.5%.

A clear majority (58%) of market participants still expect the US central bank to lower its key rates at the end of its September meeting, but strong growth and persistent inflation have called into question the idea that the Fed could make several rate cuts this year.

US T-Bonds, which had fallen sharply since the start of the week, tried to recover, but to no avail: the '10 yr' is up +5pts to 4.338% (a spectacular turnaround since 3 p.m.).

OATs are no better, stretching +3pts to 3.303%, while Bunds are off +4.5pts to 2.4950%: the OAT/Bund spread remains above 83pts.

OAT holders are showing their nervousness ahead of the first round of French parliamentary elections this Sunday.

If the latest polls are to be believed, the most likely scenario is that of a hung parliament with no dominant party", say analysts at Danske Bank.

"In such a context, the markets' worst fears surrounding vast increases in budget spending should ease, as the new government will inevitably have to accept compromises in order to pass its bills", stresses the Danish bank.

Investors took note of several statistics in Europe this morning: French consumer spending on goods rebounded in May by 1.5% in volume terms (after -0.9% in April, a figure revised down by 0.1 points on the initial estimate).

In addition, over one year, consumer prices in France are expected to rise by 2.1% in June 2024, down from 2.3% the previous month.

The same trend was observed in Spain, where inflation fell again in June, as announced by the National Statistics Institute (Ine) on Friday, mainly as a result of the downturn in fuel prices.

But the political situation in the United States also calls for caution, as Donald Trump appeared to be much more convincing than Joe Biden last night in the first debate between the two main presidential candidates.

According to a CNN poll conducted overnight, Donald Trump was the clear winner of this first televised duel in the run-up to the November elections, with 67% of viewers giving him the win, compared with 33% for the outgoing president, who was judged to be tired and confused.

On the oil market, Brent crude oil is stable at around $86.4 a barrel.

The euro remains perfectly unchanged against the greenback, at $1.07/E on the eve of this politically crucial weekend.

In French company news, Lagardère announces that its Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Arnaud Lagardère as CEO, following the partial lifting of the management ban imposed on him on April 29.

Poujoulat has reported net income of 10 million euros for its 2023-24 financial year, compared with nearly 26.2 million for the previous year, and EBITDA down 38% to less than 31.1 million, on sales down 12.4% to nearly 352.3 million.

Finally, Thales Alenia Space announced on Friday that it had contributed to the first Kinéis nano-satellites to be part of the first European constellation dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT).

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