It would appear that the scenario of an "upstream sale" on the European stock markets to support Wall Street is being confirmed: at 5pm, the Dow Jones recorded its 13th consecutive session of gains (which has never happened in the 21st century, and the last time was from January 3 to 20, 1987, 36 years ago).

The Paris Bourse fell sharply by -1.5%, but it was worse this lunchtime with -2%: the CAC40 dropped to 7,254 and is now recovering to 7,300 in the wake of Wall Street, which is proving very resilient.
The Euro-Stoxx50 is down just -1.2% and the DAX -0.6%.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is not penalized by the decline in the luxury goods sector, with -5% for LVMH, -2.3% for Kering and -3% for Hermès.

Wall Street displays a stainless serenity in the face of a 5.5% interest rate scenario for an indefinite period, with the Nasdaq losing no more than 0.3%, which can be more than made up by 10 p.m. if the FED delivers a speech that pleases the market (after its statement at 8 p.m., during the eagerly-awaited press conference by its Chairman Jerome Powell).

While a 25bp rate hike seems largely a foregone conclusion, investors will be on the lookout for any indication of the likelihood of a further rate hike between now and the end of the year.

"Just a few weeks ago, the market was expecting (...) a further hike in September", recalls Clément Inbona, manager at La Financière de l'Echiquier. The analyst points out that "nothing is any more certain now that the latest US inflation figures have come as a pleasant surprise".

The deluge of quarterly results expected over the course of the day will also give investors an idea of the state of the economy, and will be a key factor in determining the trend.

On the statistics front, this morning investors were able to take note of France's household confidence index.
Confidence was stable in July, at 85. The synthetic indicator calculated by Insee remains unchanged and well below its long-term average (100 between January 1987 and December 2022).

Fixed-income markets became a little heavier in the late afternoon: OATs tightened by +5.5pts to 3.025%, Bunds by +5.5pts to 2.4560%... but US T-Bonds eased symmetrically by -3pts to 3.884%.

The euro recovered 0.1% to 1.1060 against the dollar, while the dollar-index lost 0.15% to 101.20.

In French company news, Orange reports net income for the first half of 2023 of 1.09 billion euros, down 25.8% on a historical basis, mainly due to the trend in operating income (-11.5% to 2.14 billion).

Danone reports recurring EPS for the first half of 2023 of 1.76 euros, up 7.6%, as well as a recurring operating margin of 12.2%, up 14 basis points, and free cash flow of 1.1 billion euros.

Worldline reports normalized EPS of 0.84 euros for the first half of 2023, up 10.5%, and EBITDA of 519 million euros, or 23.1% of sales, an improvement of 80 basis points.

Stellantis says it generated a net profit of 10.9 billion euros in the first six months of the year, up 37% on the first half of 2022.

Finally, Airbus Defence and Space has signed a contract for four new Airbus A330 transport aircraft (MRTT) with the Government of Canada, and for the conversion of five used A330-200 aircraft. The current contract has an order value of approximately 3 billion Canadian dollars or 2.1 billion euros (excluding taxes).

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