This afternoon, the CAC40 confirmed its upward trend after the losses of the previous two sessions. The index rose by nearly 2.1% to 7280pts.

The Dow Jones (0.8%), the S&P500 (+1.1%) and the Nasdaq (+1.3%) extended the previous day's rebound on the New York Stock Exchange, as fears about the US economic outlook tended to ease.

More generally, momentum seems to have reversed on the world's main stock markets, with Wall Street closing clearly in the green on Tuesday (+1% on the S&P500 and Nasdaq Composite) and Tokyo's Nikkei posting a gain of around 1% this morning.

Many analysts are taking a reassuring view after the sharp fall in equity markets following last weekend's worse-than-expected US employment report.

Michael Strobaek, Global CIO at Lombard Odier, commented: "Despite the slowdown in the employment market, both the US economy and consumers are doing rather well in our view, and we believe that the risks of a recession are limited.

"Stock markets could stabilize over the next few weeks, but we expect volatility to remain high. The Swiss franc is likely to remain underpinned by demand for safe-haven assets", he warns.

In statistics, the French and German trade balance figures for June were released this morning. Weekly oil inventories in the USA were also published in the afternoon.

In June 2024, France's trade balance improved significantly according to CVS-CJO data from the customs administration, with the deficit falling to 6.09 billion euros after 7.72 billion in May. This mainly reflects a 3.2% month-on-month increase in French exports, to just under 51.7 billion euros, while imports remained stable at just over 57.7 billion.

Germany's foreign trade balance posted a surplus of 20.4 billion euros in June 2024, down from 25.3 billion the previous month, according to seasonally and calendar adjusted data from Destatis.

Data published by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) showed that US crude oil inventories stood at 429.3 million barrels in the week to July 29, down 3.7 million barrels on the previous week.

On the value front in Paris, Airbus announced a firm order from Cathay for 30 A330-900 aircraft, as part of the Hong Kong airline's renewal of its fleet of medium-size wide-body jets.

Jefferies downgraded its recommendation on Stellantis from 'buy' to 'hold', with a price target reduced from 25 to 15 euros, believing that 'by focusing on costs, CEO Carlos Tavares has made the group more efficient than competitive'.

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